Yu Yu Hakusho Is just a story
by Banshee01
Summary: If you have ever said that YYH is just a story, many people would probabbly agree with what you have to say. In fact, that's what Jen believed...until her views were changed...changed some say...by good or bad Luck.
1. Chapter 1

(I do not own YYH.)

_YuYu Hakusho is just a _story_, it doesn't _exist

_The plot and characters were just something that Yoshihiro Togashi made up. _

That's probably what you'd say if I were to tell you that this story isn't fake. And trust me, many people would probably agree with you. But let me share a little secret...It does exist.

_Really! Ha, you're just jerking my chain! I'm gonna write you a nasty review, click the back button, and read something with more action!_

That is what you're probably thinking at this very moment. I don't blame you, If I were in your shoes and trying to find something with a lot of Kuwabara bashing, Youko enticement, and Yusuke beatings. This story wouldn't even catch me by the second line!

But…

For those of you who have made it this far and haven't given me that horrible and infamous review. I'm going to tell you a story—that is the reason why you clicked on my link right?

Well, anyway.

This story is about a girl, a girl who thought the same things as you at the beginning of this chapter. But, as you can guess, her views were changed, partly by force and partly by good (or bad, in some opinions) luck.

Now before we begin, I'm going to give you a brief description of the girl, so please bare with me.

Name: Jennifer Fisher (Jen)

Age: 17

Height: 5'0

Eye color: Blue

Hair color: Black

Likes: Art, music, and Kurama (Both forms)

Dislikes: To be called by her first name, spiders, and blood

Special abilities: Reading Tarot cards

Bio: Jen is a short young woman who doesn't have a lot of confidence in herself. She knows she's not ugly, but then again, she's not exactly going to be winning some beauty pageants any time soon. Jen is a strong believer in magic and has once seen a ghost, or so she thinks.

Now, with out further ado, I give you the story…

Chapter one: Jen, the Fool

Our story doesn't begin with a dramatic fight seen or a bash at Kuwabara. No, our story begins at night in a small trailer park in the rural area of Oakland. In this trailer park, there is a Mobil home. It used to be blue with white trim…but the heat in summer demanded a change in color, so now the trailer home is an eggshell white with light blue trim.

Inside this repainted house there is a bedroom. This bedroom could be confused with a shrine, a shrine to YuYu Hakusho. The Reiki tenti's likeness and faces were pasted all over the walls and their action figures adorned every open and flat surface. Inside this Hakusho embellished bedroom sits our unknowing heroin.

Jen.

When you first see her sitting on the bed in her nightgown, you'll note that there is nothing really special about her. Just you're average plane Jane, anime freak (preferred to be called otaku) with glasses, kind of girl. This otaku sits on her pink, teal, and purple patchwork comforter reading tarot cards.

With a slightly chewed on hand, she reaches down and flips over the final card from her reading. The ten of wands in the upright position.

With a bit of confusion, she reads the inscription associated with that card.

_Heavy duties, a stressful hardworking life. Burdens may be shouldered on behalf of others. Difficult tasks to complete; however you will successfully complete your work, even though the price in terms of health and anxiety may be high. Perhaps some obligations have to go. _

Jen wrinkled her brow and glanced over her cards again. She had picked a simple reading to do for herself, the cross spread. She just wanted to see if her future held any excitement. But her reading didn't make sense. It foretold of danger, mysteries and death. As you can guess, this wasn't the reading a looser from Oakland usually got. Carefully, she touched her cards and tried to read them again, maybe she had missed something.

Due to past readings, Jen knew that she was often represented by the fool. The fool was the carefree walker and the card of innocence and the simple joys of living. Also, he was the spirit of chaos and the unexpected. But, more often then not, he just represented freedom.

That card was right, but…the others, they were weird.

Jen huffed slightly and cleared the cards away. It figured that she would get a strange reading. Just when she thought she was getting the hang of the cards, they pulled something like this. Perhaps they just wanted to keep her on her toes, or she just wasn't cut out to be a tarot reader.

Sighing, Jen put her cards away and cast her gaze about the room. Her sight was met by the happy, stern, sad and laughing faces of the YuYu crew (as she liked to call them).

She smiled slightly and studied her favorite poster. It was an almost life size picture of the boys, they were all laughing (save Hiei) and looked as if they could see her. Kurama stood in the foreground and extended his hand towards the real world, like he was reaching out to take the viewer inside. The rest laughed and beckoned you to take Kurama's hand with their eyes, as if to say: _Come on! Hurry up, we're having so much fun in here!_

Jen smiled happily and extended her hand out to the poster, like she tended to do some times. Carefully, she shifted her weight on the bed and got on her knees so she could be eye level with Kurama. He just smiled there, inked in eyes shining; Half pixel shading, the other due to the light on her ceiling. His expression never changed (she knew it wouldn't, but kind of hoped it would).

Jen knew she was being silly, sitting there on her knees studying the poster. But she couldn't help it. They wanted her to be in there with them…and she wanted to be in there too. If only she could—

"Well, well, well, look who's _making out_ with her poster, **again**!" Came the all too familiar, sing-song voice of her little sister.

Jen froze, eyes widening. She had forgot to shut the door! O Koenma above, she had forgot _to **shut** the door_! With painstaking slowness, Jen turned to look Alex in the eyes.

Her little sister stood there, dyed crimson hair pulled back under a dark bandana. She crossed her arms over a black bunny shirt, the kind that said 'cute but psycho' under it. She was laughing slightly, eyes glittering past gothic makeup.

"Dude, you should see your face," She taunted, slightly in disgust. "You are so pathetic. I can't even believe you're my sister."

Jen looked down, caught semi red handed. This exchange of harsh words always happened between them, she didn't know why. They used to be the best of friends, then something happened. Alex started to dress in black and dye her hair. She hung out with friends until very late and began to taunt her whenever she could get the chance. Jen just didn't get it, maybe it was because Alex was 13 and struggling to fit in.

"What? Just gonna stair at me, why don't you go back to frenching what's-his-face?" Alex demanded.

Or not.

Jen's cheeks began to burn in range and embarrassment. "W-Why don't you just shut up?" She shot back, though not as good as her sister.

"Ooh, _good_ comeback!" Alex scoffed as she leaned against her door jamb and inspected black painted nails. "Why don't you make me…fuck-face?"

Jen's cheeks burned all the more as her anger took over. _Fuck-face? How dare she call me that!_

Before Jen knew what she was doing, she had crossed her room in four giant strides and struck her sister across her gothic painted face. Hard enough to send the taller (yes taller) sibling into the hall way and onto her chain loving butt.

Jen stood there huffing, towering now over her younger sister, feeling sweet adrenaline pump through her veins.

---

Alex sat there blinking, her sister had just hit her. Fucking **hit** her! That stupid little bitch. Alex slowly and deliberately pulled herself to her feet, she did this because she wanted to scare Jen. Alex knew that she out muscled her by about 20 lbs. She knew that…and so did Jen.

"Oh, your gonna get it now_ Jenny-wenny_," Alex taunted, using her sister's hated nickname.

She watched in satisfaction as Jennifer paled and took a step backwards, eyes becoming wide. Alex took a step forward and punched a fist into her awaiting hand, hinting at what would be happening to her beloved sister in a few moments.

---

Jennifer took another step back and weighed her options. Her sister was stronger, pissed and ready for blood. Their parents weren't home right now, so no help from them. She could try to fight back, but then she would just get into more trouble. Her parents would blame her for landing the first hit; would say that she deserved it for not keeping her hands to herself. Or, she could just let Alex beat her till she was done.

God, why did she always get the crappy choices?

Jen felt the bed pressed against the backs of her knees, no more space to run.

With grim intuition, Jen knew what was going to happen next. Alex was going to push her back onto the bed, pin her down and give her the thrashing of her life.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a little voice whispered "_funny how it's the_

_little sister doing the beating, isn't that supposed to be _**your**_ job_?"

Alex took a menacing step forward.

"_Great all we need now is the cheesy music! May I suggest the Jaws theme?" _The little voice hissed sarcastically as Jen was shoved, none too gently, onto the bed.

"Now your gonna get it!" Alex sneered through clenched teeth.

"_Ooh, she's getting a bruise! At least she'll have that to remember you by after she _**kills **_you!" _That same little annoying voice chirped triumphantly.

Jen closed her eyes.

"_Yes, that's right. Close your eyes and maybe she'll go away. But let's not and say you did, shall we? You want to live to see tomorrow? If you do, I have a proposition for you. I'll tell you how to get out of this mess, and you'll fix a little…problem that I have. Agreed?"_

Time seemed to slow as Jen made up her mind. That voice had a pretty good idea for her, don't get killed.All it needed was a little favor in return. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"Okay." Jen whispered mentally.

"_Excellent! Now listen to me and do exactly as I say. Just when Alex is about to hit you Jennifer, you are going to shove her hard in the chest, grab your cards and run into the woods. I'll meet you there…"_

With the conversation over, Jen's eyes snapped open in time to see her sister grin sadistically. Time still seemed to be slowly passing by, as if it wanted to make sure that this was really happening.

Our unknowing hero watched as Alex raised her fist and then began to lower it in the direction of her gut, planing to knock the wind out of her…_when Alex is about to hit you Jennifer, you are going to shove her hard in the chest…._

In that slow motion world, Jen shoved her hands up and under Alex's arms. She propelled herself forward, pressing her weight into the push. Time seemed to grow faster as she executed the blow.

Alex's eyes widened in shock as she felt her bodyweight tip backward, overbalance and fall hard into Jen's dresser. Above her, Jen's collection of assorted YuYu Hakusho figurines trembled before they cascaded down the desk and onto her in a multicolored waterfall.

Faster then Jen had ever moved before in her life, she scooped up her cards and ran from her room, through the once blue—now white panted house and into the night.

---

Tip, tup, tip, tup!

Jen ran on and on down the paved road, not knowing exactly where her bare feet were taking her. All she cared about was getting away from her sister and the pain that would follow if she ever caught up. Jen grimaced and shut her eyes. It would be best not to think about it.

It would be best…not to think…

…of anything at all…

… just…

…_run_.

---

_Why aren't I tired?_ Jen wondered, finally pulling out of the trance that she had been in for what seemed like an eternity. Time seemed to have held a different meaning then, because she wasn't sure if it had been hours or only a few minuets ago that she had left the paved road and turned instead onto a path that led through the forest.

_Where am I? Why am I wondering through the woods anyway? Where was I going?_

As her mind reeled, Jen's pace slowed to a sluggish walk…then to nothing at all. It seemed that her all-knowing-feet had led her to a forest clearing god only knew where.

Tall evergreens and other types of leafy trees bordered the clearing so thickly, that it was almost impenetrable (save for the way that she had come in of course). But, for how thickly the trees lay outside, inside it was the opposite. Instead of thick leafy trees, soft grass grew in abundance as well as a vast variety of wild flowers. Making this little hollow seem like a private paradise.

Jen tilted her head back catching a glimpse of the sky through the tall trees. It was lighter now; tinged with orange, pink and blue.

_Its morning…I've been running all night._

Slowly Jen lowered her head and cast her sight about the clearing again. In the distance, she could make out a rather large and elegant tent with guards standing out in front of the entrance. How she could have missed it before was a mystery to her. But there it was, plane as day.

"_come…"_ A voice whispered, one that she thought she knew.

Jen blinked in confusion. This seemed like a dream, it had to be.

"_come…"_ The voice beckoned again, though a bit more commanding in tone.

With a small sigh, Jen trudged through the soft grass and wildflowers towards the elegant, deerskin colored tent.

---

It didn't take her long to reach the embellished entrance. Whatever guards had been there when she had first seen the tent, were now long gone. _Probably off taking a coffee brake. _

Jen smiled at the thought. Even the actors in her dreams went on break. It kind of made her wonder what they were doing. She could picture them off-set drinking beer and laughing.

Guard one: "Hey Joe! How's the wife and kids?"

Guard two: "Ugh…The kids are drivin' me crazy ya know? Daddy I want this! We want that! Blah, Blah, Blah"

Guard one: "Man I hear ya there…"

Hm…not as funny to her as it had been a few moments ago. Which reminded her, what was she supposed to do now? Knock on the flap and say: _"Hello? Can I come into your tent please?"_

"_You could if you wanted, but just walking in would be sufficient."_ The voice whispered playfully.

Jennifer jumped as the flap was pulled open for her, revealing the gloomy and incense filled interior.

"Come in." A voice whispered.

Before Jen had a chance to decide if she really _wanted_ to go in or not, her feet made the decision for her; moving her body inside to sit before a large and impressive figure that her eyes couldn't properly make out through the gloom and haze of incense.

"Hello Jennifer, I'm glad to see that you were brave enough to meet me here." The owner of the voice whispered. It was much more impressive the little version she had been hearing inside her head.

"Ya." Jen agreed, as she forced her eyes to adjust. A stray wisp of incense blew her way, forcing her eyes to water and throat to tighten in its sweetness. She coughed lightly and turned away from him.

Her host chuckled and settled back further into an immense nest of pillows and expensive silks. "Forgive me, I must admit. This incense _is_ a bit potent." There was a hissing noise as something hot was doused in water.

Jen looked over her shoulder in time to see a scantly clad woman dousing out an incense stick. She looked away quickly, shocked at exactly how much skin the woman was showing off.

"I-Its alright." Jen murmured, not wanting to offend.

Her host chuckled again and extended an arm out to the woman, who took his hand and joined him on the nest of pillows, purring in pleasure.

With the smoke clearing and Jen's eyes becoming a little more useful in the gloom. She could finally make out her host and his lady friend.

The lady had brown hair piled up in a loose yet very attractive style. Jewels and other such ornaments dangled and jingled about her head like little bells. She would reach up every so often and touch the bobbles, as if to be sure that they were still nestled in her golden-brown tresses. Below that perfect hair lay a baby face with the perfection of a china doll. Every feature about her was perfect, from her full blood red lips, to her cool chocolate colored eyes. She stared at Jen as if studying her worth. With a small sniff, she coquettishly looked away. As if deciding that Jen was a weed compared to her beauty.

Her outfit was a soft rose pink that barely had enough material to cover her large and slightly heaving bosom. This outfit almost reminded Jen of what Princess Laya had wore when she was the prisoner of Jaba the hut(I don't own that), only a little bit sluttier (if that was even possible).

The man, other hand, had long, composed yet attractive face; like one that would belong to an aristocrat. But, unlike an aristocrat his head was donned with wild, yet surprisingly neat white or silver hair (She couldn't be sure just yet). His hair seemed to move in its own little breeze that didn't ruffle his soft tunic or the young lady next to him.

As her eyes wandered back to his face. She noticed that he had two furry and pointed ears—like a cats, but more triangular in shape. Quickly, her gaze flipped back to the lady. She had them too…but it was a little hard to see them past her oriental hair style.

Suddenly, it donned on her that those were fox ears, like what Youko Kurama had. Instantly her eyes darted to find their tails, which didn't take her long to find. The lady had two tucked delicately behind her, twitching softly. Her host had more! Five…no seven…wait! NINE! He had nine tails behind him, each moving lazily of what seemed to be there own accord. Instantly her eyes were back to his, studying the color. Like Youko, he had golden eyes. Was it him? Could it really be Youko Kurama?

"Y-Youko?" She choked, not completely sure if this was the same Kitsune.

The creature laughed and shook his head.

"No child, I mearly fashioned him after myself."

"Oh." Jen said bewildered. "Then who are you?"

The man and woman looked at each other in shock for a moment, before both began to laugh. A bubbling and happy sort of sound that seemed to wrap her up in a strange yet pleasant sensation. Jen shivered slightly and hoped that it went unnoticed by he-who-was-not-Youko.

The white/silver kitsune slowly stopped laughing, followed instantly by his mistress.

"Do you really have no idea who I am Jennifer?"

Jennifer pursed her lips and looked away, like a small child being scolded. Because, right now…that's what she felt like.

"You've talked to me before, but I don't know you." She whispered.

"Hmm." The fox murmured inaudibly before gently slapping his lady on the butt. "I think I need to speak with her alone, my sweet. I'll call you when I'm finished."

"But _master_." The vixen pouted.

"No, out! I'll call you in a while." He repeated, only a bit sterner.

"If you insist." She sighed cutely and exited the tent, backside swaying seductively.

Both Jen and her host watched the vixen leave.

"She has a nice ass, doesn't she?" The fox asked, more to himself then his guest.

"Umm…" Jen asked and cast a sideways glance to her host. "I guess, if you like that kind of thing. But I don't swing that way, so I couldn't tell you."

"Huh…what a pity."

Noticing that her host was getting a bit distracted, Jen decided to strike up the previous conversation again. "So…if you're not Youko. Who the hell are you?"

"Oh…you're still here? Please forgive me." He started, then cleared his throat. "My name is Inari. Patron god of foxes, sex, thieves and the like."

"SEX?" She squeaked like a perverted parrot.

The god inclined his head. "Yes, among other things. But that is beside the point, let's get down to business shall we."

"Uh…sure." Jen agreed.

The god ran a hand through his hair, taking a few moments to choose and arrange his words. "Jennifer—" He started, but was quickly interrupted by the human.

"Its Jen." She corrected. "Just Jen."

"Of course, Jen. Now, I'm going to tell you this in a manner you should be

able to understand with as little questions as possible. So, please don't interrupt until I am finished." The god took a breath. "Jen, The Reiki tentai does exist and they need your help. They have all be imprisoned in a demonic castle. I need you to get in there, kill the demon leader, and free the tentai A.S.A.P. Any questions?" He asked without pausing. "No? Good, off you go!"

Jen sat there stunned for a few minuets. "WOAH!"

"Hmm?" The god asked. "You have a question?"

"Damn straight I do!" Jen shouted.

"Is there something you don't understand? I thought I explained it perfectly well." The god said as he ran his hand through his hair again.

"YOU JUST TOLD ME THAT YUSUKE, KURAMA, HIEI, **AND** KUWABARA ARE IN FACT **ALIVE AND KICKING**." Jen shrieked.

"Well that does seem to be the case, doesn't it?" The god demanded, unreeled by Jen's furry.

"BUT HOW CAN THAT BE? THIS IS SO FU—" Jen cried in shock until the god placed a long clawed hand over her mouth.

"I think I've suffered your shrieking **quite** long enough. To think that **I** just confirmed your wildest dreams, and this is how you **repay** me! Humph!" He pouted.

Jen pushed his hand away and moaned. "Dear god what am I supposed to do?"

"Ha! I've already told you." Inari chirped pleasantly.

Jen sighed in defeat.

"Besides, you owe me. Remember?" He coaxed.

"Owe you?" Jen demanded flatly. _I don't owe him anything._

"Oh…how we forget so soon. With your sister, I told you how to get out. You agreed to my terms. Remember?"

"Oh god!" Jen wailed and buried her head in her hands.

"You called?" Inari demanded sweetly.

"I owe a sex god a favor!"

"Oh come now, its not like I'm going to be asking **that** type of favor from you. And why is it that SEX is the only of my attributes that you seem to recall…I did mention that I was a god of thievery!" He shot.

"This is so bad! I should have just let my sister beat me!"

"Maybe you should have." The god agreed, a little bit of the pleasantness slipping from his voice. "But you didn't. You made an agreement with a god and this is the price you will pay. If you don't everything you know will cease to exist. Including me."

Jen looked at him from between her fingers, debating if that were really true.

"We don't have time to just sit here and do nothing. The longer we wait, the more likely the tentai will be dead and our—not to mention your—world will end as we know it." He concluded, pretending not to notice her look.

Our hero groaned before submitting to him. "What do I have to do again?"

"Excellent." The god beamed before reminding the human of her duty. "Your job is to infiltrate the castle, kill the one my arch enemy is manipulating—his name is Skilt by the way—and free the YuYu crew. Hmm…what a lovely nickname you have for them."

"That's all?" Jen asked.

"That's all." Inari confirmed.

"Oh, okay. And uh…just how were you planning on me doing this?" Jen demanded.

"Well, it definitely won't be with your winning personality and your good looks, now will it." He huffed before adding. "Incase you have forgotten, I am a **god** and will properly outfit you with all that you need."

"That's cool." Jen said, then more thoughtfully. "Who is your arch enemy?"

"Now you're getting into the spirit." The god narrated approvingly. "You have heard of Enma-dou haven't you? Almost everyone who watches YuYu Hakusho has."

Inari had barley finished his sentence before Jen started to spew out facts about Enma-dou. he let her ramble for a couple of moments before he tuned back into what she was saying.

"…but, why would he be the bad guy?" She asked confused.

The god scoffed. "To make a long story short I'll spell it out for you. Enma-dou has long coveted human world and has wished for it to be under his sway. Fortunately for us, he has never had the power to fully attempt at a take-over. So he hasn't been a problem. But now, he has somehow wormed his way into the underworld and found himself a demon prince to mooch off of. This prince, along with his legions of demons, gave Enma-dou the strength to push back the barriers of both human and spirit world alike. By now Enma is well into his final plans. All he needs is to get prince Skilt to give the final command to overrun the human world and claim it in his name. But before he does this, I'm sending you in to kill Skilt and disband the army of demons before his plans can bare fruit."

Both god and girl sat silently for a moment.

"Okay…but what can I do?" Jen wondered aloud. "I'm just a kid. I can't even drive a car and you want me to save everything?"

"Your seventeen, that hardly counts you as a child. Besides, I need you." Inari insisted.

Jen sighed and closed her eyes. "Alright. Alright, I'll do it."

"Good, we'll start with the easy things first. To begin with, your makeover!" The god beamed

Jen blanched and nearly fell over. "M-Make over? I hardly think this is a time to worry about my looks!"

Inari rolled his eyes and huffed. "Any time is a good time to think about your **looks**! If you were to show up at Skilt's door looking like that, he'd never even give you a second glance. Men have these things called eyes, and they do use them!"

"Are you saying I'm ugly!"

"Only if you take it that way my dear, now…let's start with your cloths." Inari mused and stood, towering over the girl who was only half his height.

"With your coloration, I would say something in a yellow or a blue."

The god flicked his wrist and Jen felt a rapid tugging motion on her cloths. Suddenly, she stood before him wearing a skirt and shirt similar to his wonton vixen's. But instead of the beautiful pink, it was half smoky blue and half sunshine yellow cut evenly down the middle.

Jen gasped and tried to cover herself with her arms.

The god sniffed. "Ugh, neither color. Hmm…lets try something like this."

With another flick of his wrist she was wearing a tight black dress that scarcely had enough material left over the top of the silver bodice to cover her bust.

Our hero shrieked like a little girl and her hands flew up instantly, trying to cover the new exposed flesh. Jen was so flustered with the lack of cloth on the top that she was completely oblivious to the fact that the slits on the dress were so high that her backside threatened to be seen if she so much as moved another inch.

"That's better." Inari mused, "But black…no too dark. Perhaps a lovely green."

As soon as the color was out of his mouth the color changed. Inari cocked his head to the side. "Hmm…no."

"M-my mother says I look good in pink." Jen offered.

"Pink…too innocent, we don't want that. Oh! I know, a red. Yes, it will balance out your hair and your eyes perfectly!"

The god snapped his fingers and the color changed instantly. This time Jen stood in the same dress, only now it was the dark crimson of demon's blood.

"Just as I thought." The god beamed excitedly. "Perfect. Now for the bodice, I think a mother of pearl would do nicely."

Jen could only nod her head in agreement. What was the use of complaining, he didn't seem to want to listen anymore.

"And for the shoes…I think a nice pair of stilettos." He mused.

"Do you want me to brake my neck?" Jen muttered.

Inari slapped his forehead. "You can't walk in heels?"

"Is that a bad thing?" Jen asked going onto the defensive. It wasn't her fault her mother never let her buy stilettos, let alone high heels.

"No, but it completely ruins the effect. Oh well, barefoot is just a good. Besides…in a few moments you won't need shoes anyway." The god said lightly.

"Um…why?" Jen asked, not liking his tone.

"Come here Jen-ni-fer!" The god called in an all to happy sing-song voice.

_I'm so not going to like this_ Jen thought as she gingerly approached the god.

"Now for the hard part. Changing your species." The god whispered and chuckled.

"Say what?" Jen barley got this out before the god placed her in a lip-locking kiss. Somehow she managed to push him off before he got to do anything.

"Oh for the love of…well…ME!" Inari scolded miffed. "Would you kindly hold still and stop fighting me at every turn!"

"Well if you weren't trying to kiss me maybe I'd hold still!" Jen screeched while turning a slight shade of pink. "There is no way my **first** kiss is going to be wasted on an old **pervert** like you!"

The god took a deep breath, profoundly wounded by her words.

"Do you know what will happen if I just send you there in your human form?" Inari asked casually, as if she hadn't spoken. "The air in demon world is so corrosive that humans, like yourself, shrivel up at just the faintest whiff. And if, by some miracle, you did happen to survive your first breaths; you would be picked off by some demon or another because you were unable to defend yourself. Would you like this to happen? No, I think not. So let me continue unhindered."

Jen sat there for a moment before she heaved a sigh of submission. There was no way she could win this argument. Inari had her were he wanted.

"Alright…alright…" Jen muttered and put her hands up, palms facing forward in the universal sign of 'don't shoot I'm helpless'. "Go ahead."

"I thought you'd see it my way." Inari mused before he placed his lips across her mouth once again.

The thought of actually giving her a **real** first kiss crossed his mind for a moment, but it faded away as quickly as it had come. Instead he reached into his limitless power supply and withdrew a generous amount of demon youki. While he did this, Inari gently supported the child's head with his hand. Earning a timid gasp from the mortal—exactly what he needed.

When lips parted, instead of the air she had wanted; Jen received a burning blast of youki in its place. The girl choked and struggled against the hot burning power that spread like wildfire and scorched the delicate tissues of her human body.

Inari cradled the changing child as she struggled. If his lips broke contact before the change was completed, she would die; and then where would he be?

In his arms Jen struggled like a mad woman. It felt as though she was on fire! She tried to beg him to stop, but his lips were pressed so hard on her own that she couldn't get her mouth to move. Not that it would matter, her vocal cords had long ago burned away under the heat of whatever was pumping through her. Suddenly, her back muscles clenched, forcing her into a painful arch as something shot out the base of her spine and curled between her legs. She tried to scream in torment, but (surprise, surprise) it didn't work.

So hard by pain was Jen driven, that she hardly noticed when her hearing cut out altogether, only to be replaced a second later with surround sound in all directions.

Inari watched as the convulsing girl finished changing. Her disgusting human features had been replaced by the elegant and seductive form of a Kitsune. Human ears turned fox, lay flat against her head in the obvious sign of extreme discomfort and pain. Likewise her ebony tail lay curled between her legs, making the small demon look very pathetic and cute. Also, her hair had grown, and now lay pooled about him in a long midnight colored trail of silk. Inari gently lowered the teary eyed demon onto a soft ivory pillow.

"All done." He cooed quietly.

The god smiled lightly and leaned back against his own nest of pillows, the poor thing had passed out.

---

Jen woke to a gentle voice a long way off, a voice that was pressing her to do something. She tried to open her eyes, but they seemed to have welded themselves together in protest. Suddenly, a cool and bitter liquid flowed down her burned throat. Jen choked and turned her head away. It may have felt good, but the taste! That in itself was enough to forgo any relief she had felt.

The voice laughed and again pressed the cup to her lips, this time making sure that she couldn't get away until she had finished the horrible brew. When she was finished, Jen found herself more aware and stretched out on a rather large white pillow.

"Felling better?" Inari demanded pleasantly and placed the cup away. "No, I wouldn't get up if I were you. Not just yet."

Jen obeyed, too weak and in pain to care. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep and forget everything. Jen must have done just that because, the next thing she knew, someone was shaking her lightly, and telling her to get up.

"Come on Jen." Inari voiced lightly. "Wake up and meet your new partner."

"Hmm?" The human-turned-fox croaked, voice almost gone.

The god smiled and helped her to a sitting position.

"Wake up." He commanded gently.

Jen opened her eyes and glanced around. They were still in the tent, her cloths were still in place, and everything seemed to be alright. For now.

"Kit!" The god called. "Come here!"

There was a rustling noise as the tent flap opened and a young, 17 or 18 year old boy stepped into the tent.

"Jen, I would like you to meet Kit. He will serve as you're new guard and traveling companion." Inari informed. "I created him just this morning. I was sitting her waiting for you to heal, when the thought hit me. You have no idea how to navigate the demon realm, so I created Kit to help you. I think you'll like the design I chose. Looks familiar doesn't he?"

Jen sat in shock, studding her new companion. She couldn't stop her mouth from hanging open like a dead fish. How could Inari have done this!

---

Kit sat a few feet away from them dressed in a soft fighting tunic, similar to what Youko would wear. His lengthy body of seven feet was folded in the traditional Japanese-style sitting position. Long red hair was allowed to hang loosely behind him in what looked like a red water fall (Save for two thick strands that hung down in front of his ears, a little past his shoulders). He reached up to absentmindedly run a clawed hand through bangs that seemed to defy the very laws gravity. With warm yellow-green eyes, he watched his lord and mistress studying him. He didn't like that very much and without notice both his silver-white ears and tail lowered.

"Hello." He said confidently, voice warm and pleasant despite what he was feeling.

---

Jen closed her mouth and glared at Inari. How could he do that to her? How could he have made her traveling companion look like Suuichi caught mid transformation into Youko? Didn't he know that she had a crush on him, on both of his forms?

"Kit, I would like you to meet your new mistress. Jennifer." Inari said while smoothly gesturing to the girl.

"Hello." Kit said again, sounding exactly like Suuichi.

"Hi." Jen responded, voice raspy. She had a feeling that it was going to be like this for a while.

Kit smiled pleasantly, the tail behind him began to wag slightly. Jen tried not to groan in despair.

"Well, now that were all properly introduced. I suggest that we give you an extremely quick briefing on your powers and then send you off to demon world." Inari declared.

"Now Jen, This is Kit. He is a plants master and an excellent fighter. Kit also specializes in geography, thievery, and the manners of the court. If there is anyone who can find this castle, get you in and get you out again. Kit can do it. I just hope that you will treat him with more respect then you treat me."

Jen could only stare as Inari continued.

"Jen, you'll also notice that you have changed. While my Youki power was running around inside you, it tried to determine what type of kitsune you should be. In the end, you turned out to be a magic's kitsune. Therefore your power has to do with magic of any kind. For example, illusion, telepathy, spiritual readings, those kinds of things. Also, it is important for you to know that you derive your powers from the moon. Therefor, you are most powerful at the full moon and weakest at the new moon, so it would be prudent to plan accordingly. Any questions?"

"How is she to protect herself?" Kit asked, surprising everyone with his quiet, yet powerful voice.

"An excellent question Kit." Inari beamed. "Lets have her show us."

Jen quirked an eyebrow.

"Show you?"

"Of course. All you have to do is focus on a weapon—any one at all, mind you—and it should form in your hands. But a word of caution." Inari stuck his index finger into the air and waged it back and forth, like one would do when scolding a child. "You may decide on one weapon and one weapon only, so choose wisely."

Jen looked down at her hands. Choose a weapon? She didn't even know what type of weapon to pick, let alone how to use it. With a small sigh, she extended her hands, after a second a weapon began to form in her mind. Slowly she closed her eyes and focused on it.

The weapon was long, probably as tall as her and thin. It looked like a black-painted pole with a scarlet hand grip and golden caps at each end. As she watched, the weapon turned broadside and the middle twisted. From the top end, a mass of mettle shot outwards like a switchblade. The sharp edged metal was curved into what looked like a crescent moon and sat perched upon the gold like a deadly snake. The weapon twisted in the middle again and the cruel looking blade was swallowed back into the pole. She sat transfixed as the weapon shrank down to the size of her forearm and floated towards her. Carefully Jen reached out and grabbed the weapon.

It was light, a lot lighter then it looked. Carefully she ran her hands over the wood, it was smooth as marble and extremely strong. She knew that the pole itself would be able to crack a samurai's blade and send it flying away in a shower of sparks. The only question was, did she know how to use it? The answer, which surprised the heck out of her, was yes.

---

Back out in the real world, Inari and Kit sat patiently. Jen had entered her mind about five minuets ago and was trying to come up with a weapon. Neither of them knew if she would be successful or not.

"My lord," Kit remarked, braking the silence between the two beings. "You said that you had borrowed my design from someone, and from the look that Miss Jen gave me, I would say that she recognized me. Please, who exactly do I look like?"

The god sat quietly for a moment before deciding to answer.

"Kit, you look like one of the members of the Reiki tentai—Kurama is his name—well…to put it more precisely, you look like a general blend of his two forms. Youko and Suuichi"

Kit sat silently, processing the information.

"But my lord, wouldn't that make us look suspicious? I think that someone is bound to find it alarming that two Kitsunes just happen to find their way into the high court, charm the prince, and have one of them look exactly like a member of the trapped Reiki tentai."

Inari chuckled, he had picked this form well. Not only did he have the brains of Youko, but he also had the gentle voice and misleading charms of the human.

"I think not pet." Inari mused. "But if you really think that you are that noticeable, you should stay in your true fox from. It should prevent prying eyes from discovering who you happen to look like."

Kit lowered his head thoughtfully, calculating what Inari had said and evaluating any flaws that came with it.

Suddenly, there was a blast of orange light and Jen was holding something in her hands. It looked like a black rod with the ends dipped in gold.

"Excellent!" Inari cried. "Now you are ready to enter demon world and complete your mission."

Kit unfolded himself gracefully from his position on the floor and moved to stand by his human-turned-fox companion. With a large hand, he reached down and gently cupped the smaller girls in his own. Jen gulped quietly.

"I'll see you again when this is all finished. Until then, travel safely. You have my blessing." Inari murmured and pressed his fingers to his lips.

Kit gently tipped forward in a bow, pulling Jen with him.

Inari smiled and raised a hand.

"Be gone." He commanded and snapped his fingers. The two before him disappeared in a puff of blue tinged smoke.

"And so, the fight for life begins." The god muttered and settled himself down on his nest of pillows.

Without him even having to say a word, his vixen again appeared. Though this time she was dressed in white. The only sound that she made was from the soft jingle of her bobbles. Carefully, she curled up next to him, offering whatever comfort she could give to the uneasy god. For now his life and the existence of the entire universe rested in the hands of a shy teenager.

End chapter One

Banshee: Please Review - I hoped you enjoyed the first chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own YYH, Wish I did…but don't. /sigh/**

** ('.' ) ( '.') ('.' ) ( '.') ('.' ) ( '.') ('.' )**

**Chapter two: Kit, the knight of Pentacles**

They were falling from what seemed to be an impossible height. Jen and kit were caught in a vortex, a vortex of wind, light and the absence of sound.

Kits hand tightened about the small girl's. They were passing though the portal that linked her strange universe to his own. Colors that were composed of both positive and negative light whizzed my them at amazing speeds, ruffling their hair with silent windy wake.

Jen brought her hand up to wrap about the other kitsunes. The wind and color display was awesome.

In return, kit wrapped his arms about his mistress. She looked up at him with wide blue eyes, obviously enjoying the show. She smiled and kit watched as she began to speak…big mistake!

"Are we there yet?" Jen cried, trying to make herself heard over the screaming wind. The moment the words were out of her mouth she regretted it.

The wind about her compressed and forced the rest of the air in her lungs out. This didn't seem like such a big problem, at least until she tried to breath in—and couldn't.

Kit watched dumb with shock as Jen tried to speak. Didn't she know that talking was forbidden in the void? She choked and her chest heaved, trying to replace the lost oxygen. Oh great, she didn't.

Kits stomach did a series of flip-flops as Jen struggled to breathe. She could get her diaphragm to push the air out, but it didn't seem strong enough to pull the roaring wind into her body. With grim knowledge, he knew that even Inari was bound to the rules of the void. So what was a small girl's hope?

Kit knew that voids weren't actual universes, they were only thin pockets of reality that acted as channels for a select flow of traffic. Usually, these were only used for the gods as they traveled across the universes spreading their immense wisdom with every intelligent species. They all knew the one taboo, don't talk while you ride. If you broke this rule, the wind would steel the very breath from your lips. Oxygen diffusing into the empty space, leaving you completely depleted until you reached your destination. Okay for gods, not for daemons/humans.

Jen's hands flew to her throat in the universal sign of 'I'm-choking.' She was desperately trying to breathe, but nothing was happening. The air would go out, but not in! Panic started to build in her stomach and her vision pixilated with little black squares. Her knees trembled and a bead of sweat traveled down the side of her face.

The human-turned-fox shook her head. _I can't suffocate this fast_! She thought wildly. _I know I've held my breath longer then this!_ But time didn't seem to matter here. She had been out of air now for one minuet. But to her, it felt more like ten. Jen's vision blurred and her knees gave way. The only reason she stayed standing was because Kit was holding her upright.

Jen felt light-headed and her vision crapped out. Her mind decided that now was a good time to send its suffering host a nice little home video as she waited to suffocate. Her thoughts reeled and focused on a not so long ago summer. Her father was wearing that stupid Hawaiian shirt with the palm trees and pink birds all over it. He thought hew as 'hip' and 'in' wearing that with his khaki colored shorts and flip-flops. He was laughing and holding an umbrella drink. "_Ya know Jenny,"_ he started and sipped from his drink. _"Sex is like air…it doesn't matter unless you're not getting any."_ He laughed and blurred into nothing. For some strange reason, Jen now understood the logic behind the joke. Well…at least the part about the air. _It didn't matter unless you weren't getting any._

Kit watched dumbstruck as Jen turned blue and went limp. His mind raced, trying to find a solution that wouldn't endanger himself. If he died, she would arrive in demon world totally lost and would end up being killed—or worse. If she died, the mission would be over and everything would go up in smoke and hells fire, quite literally.

Jen had been out of air for a full minuet, brain damage wouldn't set in for another two. If they had been in reality, he would have been granted a lovely 15, but this wasn't the real world. He deliberated for another minuet and a half before he made his decision. If Jennifer was smart, she could probably complete the mission on her own with only small problems. If not…then they would be doomed anyway.

His decision made, Kit tilted his mistress's head back and blew his remaining breath into her mouth, filling her oxygen starved lungs with his life's breath.

Her skin turned pink immediately, but she didn't wake. Probably a good thing, he doubted that seeing someone asphyxiate would be a very pleasurable sight. He felt his world lurch and he hit his knees, taking the girl with him. Somehow he was able to protectively curl his body around the girl's, prepared to guard her to the very last. Which, his brain reminded him cruelly, wouldn't be very long.

Consciousness roared back to Jen in a mixture of sight and sensation. Her system was overloaded and forced to reboot. The first thing that came back to her was the sensation of wind ripping mercilessly at her cloths, trying to tear her from the arms that held her so tightly. Next came sight, she could see the void around her in a slowly clearing cloud of color. After a few moments of that, Jen found that she was quite aware of her surroundings.

It was then that she noticed that the color coordination had changed, and frankly, she didn't like it. The multitude of colors had compressed into a scenic view of forest, grass and sky. After further inspection, she found that her world was spinning around her like some twisted and evil dreidel. It took our slow hero another second to realize that the world wasn't spinning—she was—not only that, but they were free-falling incredibly fast towards the forest below and gaining speed. Blow—wait above—no defiantly below her, great dark fur trees stretched out to greet them. Leafy branches open like a mother inviting a child to run into them.

Jen closed her eyes and screamed against the unconscious kit, powerless to do anything else.

Then, just as our hero's were about to meet a tragic and untimely death, they were saved. Saved by the very trees that could have killed them both. Things happened so quickly that before Jen could completely undersigned what had happened, both were safely on the ground and protected by the local vegetation.

Jennifer's frightened mind took a few moments to collect itself and piece together what exactly had happened to her. Slowly it began to replay the chain of events for her, just fast enough so that she could grasp it. They had been falling when the branches of those dark fur trees sprang to life, snatching them out of the awaiting jaws of death and lowering them into a safe fort of wriggling vegetation.

Jen didn't know how long she had laid there, brain drinking in everything slowly as if savoring the horrid event. After her brain had been assured that Jen was alright, it decided that it was time to alert Jen to Kit's death.

Suddenly, like some really bad horror movie, Jen realized that Kit was dead. This perception hit her like a tun of bricks. With a startled yelp she turned to the red and white/silver kitsune. His beautiful grassy colored eyes were closed and his face was set in a clam line, like he was sleeping. Only Jen didn't think he was sleeping. He didn't look to be breathing and he was the whiter shade of pale. Her brain force-fed her the awful conclusion of her observations. Kit, the beautiful blend of Kurama and Youko, was dead.

**---**

"Twenty bottles a' beer on the wall, Twenty bottles a' beer! Ya, take one down, pass it around Nineteen bottles a' beer on the wall!" Sang a rather raspy and cocky voice. "Nineteen bottles a' beer on the wall! Nineteen bottles of beer—"

"If you say **one** more thing about beer, baka…I'm going to rip your tongue out of your mouth and feed it to you!" Interrupted a rather dark and threatening voice.

"Ah, chill shrimp. Besides, what in the hell **else** are we gonna to do while we wait for our impending doom?" Wined the raspy voiced speaker.

There was a groaning sound from across the small cell and the rattle of strongly warded chains.

"H-how about ya shut up an' let me get some sleep." The rather battered and horse voice of Yusuke interjected quietly.

There were a few moments of silence as each occupant carefully contemplated this action. But it wasn't to be, the silence was soon shattered by the beaten redhead across from Hiei.

"Impending?" Murmured the pained voice of Kurama. "I'm impressed Kuwabara, that's the most intelligent word I have ever heard you say." He chuckled for a moment before his laugh turned into a rather nasty cough that ended with him spitting a bit of blood from his mouth.

"UGH! KURAMA THAT WAS SO—uh…you alright?" The carrot toped teen questioned, forgetting that he was supposed to be insulting Kurama for the bash on his intelligence.

"Take it easy fox boy! What would your fan girls do if you died in here?" Yusuke chimed in from his chained position adjacent to the fox. He snorted at his own weak attempt at bringing humor into this hell hole.

Kurama sighed darkly. "Forget my fan girls…what about my mother?"

"Don't worry about it! There's no way a bunch of pug-uglies like Skilt's army can hold us in! We'll get outta here, an' as soon as we do that you can go see your mom!" Kuwabara crowed.

Hiei hn'ed darkly before adding his two bits. "I don't think you've noticed oaf, but we seem to be trapped in here."

"Ah c'mon, shrimp have some faith! Kurama'll get us out a' here in no time. I mean he **is** a master thief!"

"Are you really that blind human, wait who am I talking to?" Hiei demanded sulkily. "Why don't you take a good look around this room, baka, and tell me what you see plastered all over these walls."

"Guh...uh.." Kuwabara grunted as he strained his chained neck to see what was 'plastered' all over the walls. After a few moments of inspection he snorted. "There's a lot a' little paper strips…but what does that have to do with anything?"

Hiei and Kurama snickered, laughter as dark as their prison.

"Those are warding talismans, Kuwabara." Kurama explained and pointed towards one of the slips. "They bind our power as well as affect my memory."

Kuwabara gave him his normal 'I-have-no-friggen-clue-what-you-just-said' look.

Kurama sighed. "Those strips not only hold our powers inside of us and feed off it, but they also block me from accessing some of my memories. Basically, anything that has to do with locks, those paper strips, and how to undo them."

"Grrrreeeeaaaat!" Yusuke groaned, sounding like a perverse 'Tony the tiger'.

"Oh, it gets better." Kurama assured him. "Let's say you tried to access your power, those talismans will glow and painfully drain your life away."

Kuwabara groaned, not liking the sound of that. "Are you sure?"

Hiei snorted before again joining the conversation. "You doubt him, fool? Go ahead and summon your sprit sword, let's see what happens to you. Heh, I wonder what your corpse will look like."

"Hiei!" Kurama spat, but too late. The very touchy teen already decided to take that as an offence and pummel the faster fire Youkai

"Wha—Grrr! BITE MY ANKLES SHORTY!" Kuwabara bellowed and roughly pulled himself to his feet. "Just you wait 'til I get over there! I'm gonna carve ya a new ass hole!"

"Hmm." Hiei taunted from his seated position. "How long do you think it would take me to bend you backwards and shove that ugly head of yours up your—"

"That's enough!" Shouted Yusuke and slammed his chain laden fist into the ground. "This is one hell of a time for us to be fighting! Lets just kill each other off right now and save Skilt the trouble!" Someone snorted and Yusuke shot him a warning glance. "I say we find a way to brake these stupid wards, and get outta here!"

"Now there's an idea." Kurama muttered darkly.

"Humph." Hiei snorted and looked away, feigning annoyance. Luckily for them though, Hiei had decided to abandon his attempts at ruffling Kuwabara's feathers. For now.

"Alright…" Yusuke started. "Anybody got any ideas?"

---

"When Scorpio and the red planet cross, an enemy of the dynasty shall come. She shall worm her way into your castle, my lord, and undo what we have done so hard to achieve." The powerful voice of the profit rang loudly through the castle's crowded audience chamber. "If she succeeds in penetrating our walls, you will loose you're life, the deal with Enma will crumble, and our very kingdom will be lost in a tide of revolt."

"Really?" A young and oily voice asked.

"The tea has foretold this as our fate, young master." The seer bowed lower in the dark chamber, not daring to look the young tyrant in the face.

"Tell me, Cedric. What does the young lady look like?" The prince demanded. Black eyes glinting playfully.

The seer gulped and carefully looked at his lord and master through his graying hair. The lord, Skilt by name, sat casually in a golden throne adorned with every gem spirit world had to offer. He examined his hand, marveling at the black leather coating his palms and fingers to the first joint. He cracked his fingers one by one, waiting patiently for him to answer.

"The whore, my lord, is one of lowly birth, mearly a human—or at least she was. Inari, may that bastard-god burn in hell, has commissioned her to kill you; and in doing so has changed her into a half-blood abomination." Cedric took a deep breath before continuing. "Her looks, sire, are also common place. The wench stands at 5'0 feet and is fair skinned. Her hair is midnight black, while her eyes are the brilliant blue of the Tiberian sea. Her ears and tail are also black my lord. She is traveling with a companion, you will know him by these colors. Red and White-silver. I could see no more on that one."

"Hmm…" Skilt murmured. He took a leather coated hand and rubbed his chin, meanwhile the dark red leather from his coat creaking at the motion. "Her looks don't sound to be that common place…Tell me, how many demons walking around have blue eyes?"

Cedric was silent for a moment as he thought. "T-There are, uh-perhaps one sire, in your castle?"

Skilt laughed quietly. He slowly got to his feet, leather whispering softly as his large waffel-stomper boots made that one and only 'stup' sound on the floor. He took a few moments to stretch before he walked over to the slightly trembling seer. He smirked and lifted one huge boot before slamming it down on the old man's head and grinding it painfully into the ground.

"I don't have **any** Cedric." He spat, orange hair falling over red-triangle tattooed cheeks. "But, besides that fact. I want you to think. If Inari picked that girl, how lowly could she be? That bitch has **got** to be packing some power. "

Skilt removed his boot from the groaning man's head and scoffed. The dirty man was getting a bit too old for his taste. He turned and sat sideways in his chair, head propped up against one arm of the throne, feet dangling off the other. "What kind of power does she have?"

Cedric groaned and slowly maneuvered himself into the proper groveling position before beginning. "S-She is also a seer my lord. Her mastery over the tarot is absolute. Also, she is the master of the Shabrin. An ancient weapon that doubles as a staff and spear. I-I warn you master, any confrontation with that woman shall mean your death. Once you have lain eyes on her, you're doom is sealed."

"Ch." Skilt spat and fingered the gold circlet that was his crown. "So you tell me that she's **also** a seer?"

Cedric nodded his head. He didn't need to be gifted with the sight to know what was about to happen to him.

Skilt snapped his fingers and signaled to the guards to get the old man. Cedric didn't even fight as the guards fell upon him like a starving men upon little food. In two seconds they had him on his knees and starring up at the ceiling, exposing the arch of his withered neck.

"Sorry Cedric, but I think its time some new blood took over your role. No woman can resist my charms."

Cedric laughed and bit back a yelp as one of the guards elbowed him in his ribs. "You are a fool Skilt." He spat, after the pain had passed. "This one can't be bent to your will. She is not of this world and so is free from your charms."

"Well darn." Skilt pouted. "Then I'll just have to rely on my potions then, won't I?"

Cedric shook his head. "You are a fool."

Skilt shook his head and bared his fangs. "You're the fool, old man."

Cedric nodded and accepted his fate. Skilt was a lover of rare beauty, the rarer the flesh…the more he wanted it. Having a young woman from another world be a god-changed half-breed with a unique coloration was too much of a temptation for Skilt to ignore. He would either possess her, or be destroyed. But Cedric thought it would be the latter, and it did his old heart glad.

Skilt reared back for the final strike at the old man. He didn't usually drink the blood of the elderly, but Cedric was an exception. He had been the strongest Seer in his court for over 5 centuries. Drinking that old goats blood would only add to his already considerable power. With that thought in mind, Skilt drank the old man dry.

Once he was finished he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and grinned his best vampiric grin, pearly fangs dyed red glittering in the low light. "Alright! Looks like I'm in the need of a new seer." There was chuckling in the background as he ran a hand through his annoying hairstyle. "Let me just give you all a little idea of what I'm looking for." He placed his hands behind his back, as if he was a little boy inspecting something. "I want a young girl, black hair—by the way; that does include ears and tail gentlemen. Blue eyes, traveling with someone who is wearing or is red, white, and/or silver. Send out the word—_only _ the word mind you, she'll come to me either way. Let it be known that I desire someone who has experience in reading the tarot. I don't want her to be dragged in by—wait a minuet…scratch that. I want you to drag in every tarot card reader that fits the description I just gave you. There shouldn't be that many. Don't say I have been looking for her, just say I'm in the need of a tarot reader, my old tea reader died suddenly. I don't want her to know I'm looking for her. Bring 'em all in. Boy, girl, anyone who fits that description. I'm gonna get her before she gets me."

There was confused murmuring from the crowed. Skilt sighed, obviously they hadn't been able to keep up with his fast paced idea.

"Look." He said simply. "All I want is for the bounty-hunters to bring me any black haired, blue eyed tarot card reader within my territory. Everyone knows about my little **thing** for beauty. So if anyone asks, say I'm looking for some sort of rarity. I want that girl, but I **don't** need her thinking I was looking for her. She shouldn't be hard to find. There aren't many, male or female, who fit my description. Just bring them here to my castle. I'll pick her out, and you can have your fun with the rest."

There was the quiet yet energized chatter of people understanding. Skilt smiled and sat himself down in his thrown again.

"Hey boss!" Someone shouted from the back. "What about that Red and black guy you were talking about."

Skilt thought for a moment. "Its red and silver oaf! But…he sounds exotic, bring him in too. But he's the side kick, so not as important. I want him only, and I mean **only **if he is traveling with the girl when you catch her. Do you all understand me?"

There were the happy cries as people began to understand what he wanted. This was gonna be great!

"Oh," Skilt commented, hushing the crowed into silence. "I suggest you mark your catch. I'll give the one who bring me the two I desire…5 million gold pieces for the girl and a generous twenty thousand silver pieces for her companion. Agreed."

This time there was no cheering, only the sound of many feet running out to gather any bounty hunter who was worth his salt. Skilt smiled and played with his hair. This was gonna be great! He had a deal with the soon to be sole god, the Reiki tentai out of commission, an army powerful enough to wipe every stinking human from existence, **and** he was soon going to have the one thing that could stand in his way delivered into his lap. Life was going beautifully!

End chapter two

**Thank you very much for the wonderful reviews. **

**/Bows/ **

**Please don't think that I'm being rude for not answering any or all questions that you may have. Some of them can't be revealed at this point in time without ruing the story. But, please note that I do keep them in mind as I go along. If there are some questions that I have to answer to clear you all up, please tell me what and where you wish me to clarify.**

**PS: If you're an Otaku, I give you many plushies and cookies. **

**( '.') Thanks Again for reading this, now its time to Review…Go! ('.' )**

**Banshee01 ((Crayola)) **


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own YYH or any other thing that sounds like I shouldn't own. (Like songs, other books, ect.)

I do own Jennifer, kit, and my version of Inari.

---

**Chapter three: The four of swords**

"No." Jen whispered in disbelief. "Kit, you can't be dead."

The fox spirit just lay there, face set into that soft calm line. Jen slowly reached down and moved blood red bangs away from his closed eyes. He looked so peaceful that she was tempted—no, she_ believed_ that he was just sleeping. That he would wake in a few moments and laugh at her for being so stupid, like her sister often did.

"W-wake up!" Jen cried happily and forced a smile. "C'mon kit, quit playing around."

No response.

"Kit, this is silly…" Jen croaked over the lump that was quickly forming in her throat. Why was she crying over a sleeping man? That's all it was, he was sleeping...ya…sleeping, not dead. "K-Kit." Tears were streaming down her face now as she gently seized his hand in hers and stroked it. "_please_."

Why wouldn't he wake up? Why was he just lying there? Why couldn't she do anything to help him? This was all her fault…if she hadn't opened her big fat mouth, everything would be alright now. Our hero lowered her head and cried. For the second time, she was unable to do _anything_. Carefully she reached over and grabbed the larger demon. He was heavy, but she was able to pull him into a more comfortable position, basically his head resting on her lap.

"C'mon Kit, open your eyes!" She commanded and gently tapped his cheeks. "Kit, kit goddamn you! Answer me!"

The fox, according to his new trend, refused to answer.

Jen let loose a pained sound that somehow turned into a yowling growl. This couldn't be true. He wouldn't die, she—she had to get help! There had to be something!

"H-help" Jen croaked, then louder. "HELP!"

"HELP!" She screamed and held the dead fox to her chest. "HELP"

---

Hiff, snuffle, snort, sneeze!

"That way master" Came the reply of a dog demon. She sneezed again and shook her human form as if trying to dry off. "There's a Kitsune's nest 0.5 of a click west."

"Good girl Io." Her master cooed and gently patted the inu's head. With out another word both master and dog raced off towards the direction of the nest.

---

Jen's body shook from fear as she heaved the much larger form of Kit onto her back. If no help would come to her…she had to go to it! His life depended on it and she wouldn't fail. Carefully Jen adjusted the wait on her back and staggered towards one of the many writhing walls of plants. There had to be something out here to help her!

Jennifer reached out with a clawed hand and gently began to part the way through the vegetation. She was almost out when suddenly something seized both Kit and her about the waist. The black kitsune gave a shriek of fear and annoyance as she tried to twist about and find what was holding her. She was jerked, gently, onto her butt and away from the wall by…the plants themselves?

Our heroin sat there for a moment, as if the impact of her butt hitting the floor had knocked some thoughts out of place (which it had). Jen drummed her free hand against her thy in thought. Inari said that Kit was a plant master, the plants were moving, somebody had to be controlling those plants, that meant that Kit…Kit was most definitely alive! Unless, by some strange way, the plants were being controlled by her, but that couldn't be. She wanted out. If she were commanding those plants, she would have been long gone by now and running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

She gulped quietly and decided to check him one more time. Jen bit her bottom lip softly, hoping against hope, that Kit had somehow survived. With the slowness that would make any horror movie bimbo proud, she turned her head to study the side of Kits face. It was still set in the same composed line, save for one thing. His eyes were moving as if dreaming! That meant that kit…he…he was** alive!**

"YEESSSSS! ALRIGHT! KIT, OH KIT!" Jen cried on relief and gently lay the comatose kitsune on the ground and hugged him for all she was worth. "THANK YOU! OH FOR GOODNESS SAKES HE'S ALIVE!"

"AHH AHA! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

---

"Do you hear that Master?" Io asked quietly while she covered her masters left flank.

"Yes." He answered and removed a demonic riffle from his shoulder and twisted it over his right hand. The riffle cooed and growled as it readied itself to shoot. The master gently stroked it as he continued. "Sounds like someone is dying in there girl."

From inside the Kitsune's writhing nest of plants both master and dog were hearing the tortured shrikes of what must be the kitsune.

"AH AHA! YAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The dog cringed and quickly hid behind the greater form of the Alpha male.

"Io." Her master scolded gently and patted her cotton-candy blue head. He watched the nest as if his silver eyes could see through the vegetation to the fox beneath. His cinnamon colored tail twitched behind him every so often.

"I—oh master. I don't think our bounty would hide in there." She whimpered quietly.

"Hush Io." He commanded again and she fell silent. "First rule of Bounty hunting: Your target is always in the last place you expect it to be."

The alpha, a cinnamon colored wolf demon, raised the demonic riffle and searched for a target. Those plants were going to be hard to get though, no doubt they would be bullet proof. Carefully he pressed a pressure point on the riffle, it squeaked and shot a lick of flame from its mouth. If lady luck was with them, the plants wouldn't blow his own fireball back into his face.

---

Jen couldn't really understand what happened to her. Everything (Just like when she was free falling) happened so quickly that her brain was unable to process it. Our hero knew that she had been celebrating the life of kit. Basically… bawling her eyes out and bear hugging the demon so hard that she probably killed him all over again.

While she was celebrating, Jen got a feeling that her bad luck was turning around, she could win and go home. But, for our hero, that wasn't to be. Fate, the rather crewel being she is, decided that Jen's suffering wasn't over till the fat lady sang; and unfortunately for Jen, there was no fat lady to sing for her. So in the unwritten law of bad horror movies, her plight would continue.

Jen shirked and covered Kits body with her own as their safe zone's left wall erupted in a ball of flames. For a moment, the fire was content to sit there. The flames took a moment to sample the dry plant life. The flames liked it, and decided that it should keep eating. The blaze split and began to spread all around her with the speed of a grass fire in August.

Jen couldn't believe the swiftness of the hungry flame. Instantly she understood what those people meant when they said that you didn't have time in a fire. With speed and strength she didn't even know she possessed, Jen again heaved Kit onto her shoulders and made a brake for the door. Wait! There was no door, and the plants were still desperately trying to keep her inside! WERE THEY NUTS?

"MOVE!" Jen commanded, but they didn't want to listen. They pushed her backwards while, at the same time, desperately tried to save themselves. Thick vines lowered from the ceiling and attempted to extinguish the blaze by swatting it, only to burst into flames and give the embers a clear cut path to the roof.

Jen panicked, eyes darting wildly about the burning building. There had to be a way out of here! She couldn't die like this, not when kit tried so damn hard to save her! There, she spotted it. The flames had charred open a hole where they had first entered.

Our foxy lady hoisted her cumbersome load further onto her shoulders, preparing to run through the flames. It was either that or get burned alive. Without a second thought she charged the door, just as something decided to come in.

**WHAM!**

Both beings collided in the entryway and, by some sick twist of fate, Jen seemed to be heavier then the person walking in. All three of them tumbled out and away from the blaze. In the impact Jen lost hold of kit and her balance, She fell to the ground with a 'thunk' that knocked the wind out of her. Behind her something gave a yowling bark of surprise.

---

Io yowled as something collided into her. _Darn fox! She ran through the fire to get out!_ The dog thought viciously and tried her best to stay standing, but what ever the vixen had been carrying flew off from where ever she had been holding it and into Io herself, knocking the dog down to the ground.

Both tumbled around for a bit before coming to rest at the base of a blood oak. Io growled and heaved herself to her feet. If there was one thing the blue pooch didn't like, it was to be on the bottom of a dog pile. She growled loudly and used her doggy pile knowledge to get out from the bottom and tower over the one who had pinned her. Our hound took a moment to realize that she was up and her target was not. With speed that would make some envious, the dog reached behind her, pulled out warded cuffs, bound the non-struggling fox, and leapt away with a very pleased smirk.

"ONE DOWN!" She bellowed and turned to flank her master, but before she had even gone a step, something wrapped about her leg. A shiver ran up the blue hound's back and she looked down with wide wine colored eyes.

Below her lay a rather singed black haired, blue eyed vixen. Looking as though she was or had been crying. "Help him." She whispered, almost too soft for the dogs keen ears to hear. "Please help kit!"

---

Jen lay there for a moment, studying her situation as she struggled to breath. Kit was lying still while some dog or cat thing bound him with chains.

"ONE DOWN!" The cat/dog smirked and was about to run off, but before she could, Jen decided to take action.

With trembling arms, our hero somehow managed to grab the thing before it ran off. Jen could feel the dog (the smell defiantly said dog) jump when she grabbed her. "Help him." Jen croaked, forcing her words to be heard. "Please help kit!"

The dog's ears perked and she gently sat down next to Jen. "What was that hun?"

Jen licked her lips and took a deep breath, gods that stung! "Please help kit."

The dog looked over her shoulder and cocked her head to the side. "You mean him?" She demanded and pointed.

Jen shook her head. "Y-Yes, he needs a doctor!"

The dog smiled and reached behind her. "Don't worry, he'll be taken care of." She withdrew a pouch and dipped her hand inside. "Ohh! You look tired, why don't you take a little nap."

Jen forced herself to sit, she didn't need a friggin' nap! That stupid dog needed to help her friend. "Help me!" She grunted and tried to stand. Jen only got onto all fours before a pair of arms shot out and metal encircled her wrists.

"I said 'take a nap'!" Someone scolded and jerked her arms quickly out from under her.

Jen yelped as her torso connected with the ground, hard. She lay there for a moment coughing badly, winded again.

---

Io smirked as the girl went into a coughing fit. She again stuck her hand into the pouch and withdrew some pink colored powder. She brought it level with her mouth and blew it into the face of the coughing vixen. "This might sting hon."

"AHH!"

"Oh, don't make such a fuss, I warned you." Chided the lovely Io. "It only hurts for a second…after that you'll be asleep."

The dog turned towards her Alpha. He was quickly putting out the flames with some of his magic. He felt her staring and turned towards her, a satisfied smirk playing lightly across his lips. "Good girl." He mouthed and blew her a rewarding kiss.

Io blushed and looked down at their catch. The girl was trying to rub the sand out of her eyes. Ouch, she wasn't supposed to do that. Oh well…the vixen wouldn't hurt herself too badly.

---

The Cinnamon colored wolf finally put out the remaining flames. Luckily he hadn't set the forest on fire, just the nest and some of the surrounding brush. With a happy sigh he holstered his riffle and headed towards Io and their prisoners. All that remained now was for him to inspect their catch and give the pup a treat for her troubles. He smirked and thought about that blue colored pooch. She was doing exceedingly well, for a nooby ((sp?)).

"Io!" He called and walked over to the overly happy inu. "Let's see what you've done."

"Oh master!" Io cried and bounded over to meet him, tail wagging a million miles an hour. "I did it, I did it!"

The wolf, by the name of blade, patted Io's head before going over to inspect her skill. The closest one was the girl. She was exactly what they had been looking for. A kitsune, black, fair skinned, not too tall…if her eyes were blue and she was packing tarot cards, they were in business.

Carefully he reached down and cracked one of her eye lids open, the unfocused blue orb stared straight ahead in a drugged stupor. With the mystery of her eye color taken care of, he decided to solve the other. Was she packing tarot cards? The answer, yes. After a quick pat down he found that they were nestled snugly against the arch of her waist, cleverly concealed under the bodice. Strange that she would carry a human brand though. Oh well, to each his own.

The wolf gently patted the fox's head and went over to inspect the other. He was a large one, seven feet from the tips of his ears to his toes. Blade sniffed the air around the fox delicately, death was coming for this one. The wolf found this odd though, this one had no external injuries. Was he sick?

"Io." He called and motioned for her to come.

The inu bounded over quickly. "Yes master?"

"Get me my case, this one needs healing." He commanded.

"Aye, Aye sir!" Io saluted and ran off to get his case.

Blade reached down and checked the ailing fox's pulse. It was erratic but strong. He was fighting it, whatever **it** was. The cinnamon colored wolf rubbed his chin and checked the strength of the wards. This fox was giving him an uneasy feeling, even this close to death. It was in every living being's nature to fight for its life, but this one was fighting too hard. What were his reasons for it? Blade cast an uneasy glance towards the female. They weren't a breeding pair, were they?

"Here you are master!" Io cried suddenly from his right.

Blade stiffened but didn't jump. He had been so preoccupied studding this fox that he hadn't felt his protegee sneak up on him, he was getting too comfortable around her. "Thank you Io." He said before casually adding "Check the girl for the mark."

"The mark?" Io asked slowly.

The wolf snorted as he fished out his tools. Figures that his trainee didn't know the basics of demon bonding rituals. "Check for a brand at the juncture between her shoulder and neck. You'll know it when you see it."

Io shrugged and did as she was told. After a few minuets of careful inspection, the girl turned up clean. "Nothing here master!" She cried and smiled.

Blade sighed in relief. If they weren't breeding, then perhaps the red fox wouldn't be too angry when he woke up. The last thing the needed was for red here to fly off the pan handle when he woke up. "Alright Io, put her in the back of the cage and strap her in tight. I'll be there shortly with him."

"YES SIR!" Io shouted and went to work.

---

Jen awoke to the jostle of her body. She was being moved, but to where she didn't know. She groaned loudly and forced her stinging eyes to open.

"I am getting so sick of this." She voiced coldly.

Carefully our hero rolled over and got up onto all fours. This was the third…or was it the forth time in 72 hours that she had been knocked out, moved, hurt, and trapped into something she couldn't get out of. All in all, she was just a little peeved.

"When I get my hands on you…" She threatened, though to no one in particular. A groaning noise cut her dark threats short. She glanced over her shoulder towards the noise. Kit was lying on his side, curled slightly into himself. To her dismay, he was bound from head to foot in black slightly glowing chains.

"Kit.." Jen breathed and moved to help him. "WAAAH!" She squawked as her hands jerked unsteadily beneath her. She lost her balance and fell onto her face, again. She groaned loudly and inspected what had tripped her up. "DAMN IT!" Jen yowled when she realized that she was tied to the stupid bars of the cage they were lying in. Gods, she didn't even notice! She was gonna die here, plane and simple.

Kit groaned again and curled a little tighter inside himself. Jen looked over and attempted to reach out to him again, only this time she was a little more careful as she did so. Surprisingly she didn't trip herself up again and was able to reach Kit's side. "Kit." She said quietly and gently moved his red hair out of his face.

Kit moaned and sweat slowly began to bead on his forehead. Jen bit her lip and used her skirt to wipe it away. He sighed and she gently touched his hand, only to discover that he was still cold. But how could that be? The only people who were this cold were dead dudes. So why, why was Kit so cold?

Jen managed (Inari only knew how) to wrap her arms about the now shivering fox and hold him close to her body, sharing her body heat. "Don't worry kit, You'll warm up soon!" She murmured softly. "I promise, I won't let anything happen to you."

Kit didn't hear her and continued to shiver. He moaned again and rested his head against her shoulder.

"Wonder what you're dreaming about. Can't be good by the looks of it." She whispered darkly.

Jen didn't know why she did it, all she knew was that she needed to give him some peace of mind. _I-It worked for Duddits in dream catcher, maybe it could work for him…well he isn't crying, but maybe it'll calm him down. Oh gods I can't believe I'm gonna do this?_ Jen thought. _Here we go…_

First she was quiet, afraid to share what she felt she needed to. But as she went along, she forced herself to focus only on the music and ignore any other ears that might be listening to her. Maybe, just maybe this was what he needed. She smiled sadly as she began the first words of the song, this was all she could give him. She took a breath and began, skipping the echoes at the beginning of the song.

Starting from here, let's make a promise,

you and me let's just be honest.

Were gonna run, nothing can stop us

Even the night that falls all around us

Soon there will be laughter and voices

Beyond the clouds, over the mountains

We'll run away on volts that are empty

Lights from the air field, shining all around us!

Nothing can stop us, not, now I love ya

They're not gonna get us, they're not gonna get us!

Nothing can stop us, not, now I love ya!

They're not gonna get us, They're not gonna get us

They're not gonna get us, They're not gonna get us.

Her words trailed off as the lead of the song played off in her head. Hopefully she was helping and not hindering. She gently felt his forehead as she hummed the lead, he was quiet now. Breathing deep and slowly shivering.

---

Kit wandered though an empty black space. He was cold…so cold. Where was he? What was he supposed to be doing? Was he dying?

"Inari." He muttered softly as he scanned his surroundings. Everywhere he looked was empty black space. Behind, Above, below, **everywhere**. Kit slowly turned in circles, where was he? What was happening! Kit shivered and wrapped his arms about his middle, trying to conserve heat.

"Okay." He whispered softly and lowered himself down to the ground.

Well there wasn't any ground per-say, but for the sake of his sanity, he would call what he had been standing on "the ground". Kit moved his arms from his middle to around his legs and shivered. He didn't know how long he sat there until his thoughts again made themselves know._ Perhaps someone was looking for him, someone who would find him._

Wait…Looking for him…wasn't **he** supposed to be looking for someone? No, not looking…he had to help that person find something. But who was it? Wait…it was a girl. A little girl. Her name, her name was…oh fudge! He couldn't remember her name for the life of him. Oh well, he hoped that she could find Skilt with out him

Kit jumped to his feet like he had been shot. Skilt, he had a mission, a mission that he had been entrusted with. That girl, he had to protect her. Jennifer, that was her name! Only, she didn't like to be called that, Jen was what she liked. _Though_, he thought slowly as his memory came flooding back, _a lady should always use her full name_.

Kit stood and began walking, he had to find Miss Jennifer. She was probably lost and afraid in this dark abyss like he had been. Kit closed his eyes and sniffed. He could smell her, but she seemed to be coming from everywhere. Odd, how could that be?

_We'll run away, keep everything simple…_

Kits ears twitches as her voice floated through the black space.

_Night will come down, our guardian angle……..We rush ahead the cross roads are empty…._…._Our sprits rise, there not gonna get us!_

Kit's ears rotated around on his head like little radio dishes. It took him a few moments, but he was able to pinpoint where her voice was coming from. It was…behind him in a south, south-east direction. Kit did a quick about face and walked in the direction of her voice. It was shaking softly, as if she was trying to keep it quiet, but loud enough for only a few to hear.

_My love for you, always forever…Just you and me, all as is nothing_

_Not going back, not going back there._

_They don't understand! They Don't understand us_

_Not gonna get us, gonna get us, not gonna get us._

Kit took off in a run, the faster he got there the better. As he ran, he timed his feet to fall to the beat, but only because it was easy to keep his feet moving to. She was singing a dance song, one with a quick beat and probably one that would play at a ningen dance club.

_They're not gonna get us! Not gonna get us!_

Kit could feel something warm pressed against his back and the soft feel of breath rustling against his cheek as something breathed.

_Nothing can stop us, not, now I love ya _

_They're not gonna get us, they're not gonna get us!_

Kit felt something go "click" behind his eyes and his world turned to black.

_Nothing can stop us, not, now I love ya!_

_They're not gonna get us, They're not gonna get us!_

_They're not gonna get us, They're not gonna get us_.

Kit wrinkled his forehead, this wasn't right…oh ya. He had to open his eyes. Slowly he forced his eyes to open. His head was turned to the side resting against the shoulder of a young woman, who was singing softly near his ear and trying her best to warm his cold body with her own heat. He raised his eyes up to her lips and watched/listened as she ended the song.

Not gonna get us!

---

Jen finished the song and tried to tuck Kit's hair behind an ear that wasn't there. She quirked an eyebrow and gently moved his blood red locks away from where his human ears would be. To her shock (even though she already knew) there wasn't anything there. Just flat, peach colored porcelain skin. Gently she ran her finger along it and shivered. Gods, that was so creepy. There were supposed to be ears there.

"A-are you cold?" Kit questioned softly.

Jen went ridged and turned red as her hand fell away from his face. How long had he been awake.

"Miss?" He asked again, voice sturdy. He could feel the heat climb up her shoulders and to her face. Kit wrinkled his brow in question and tried to push off of the girl.

"AH! No, Kit you should stay down." Jen blanched and wrapped her arms around him in attempting to keep him there.

Kit nodded and obeyed her, truthfully unable to get up just yet.

"How are you feeling?" Jen asked, trying to divert his questions.

Kit was silent for a moment. "Better then some, worse then others."

Jen smiled and laughed lightly.

"Hmm?" Kit asked, questioning her actions.

Jen relaxed against the bars and cradled the now awake fox. "M-my grandpa, he uses that phrase."

Kit licked his lips and settled into Jen's soft lap. "Really?"

Jen nodded softly, then realizing he couldn't see it, so she affirmed it. "Ya, he always has quirky phrases like that."

"He sounds to be an interesting person. How old is he, if I may ask."

Jen smiled and leaned her head back against the bar. "Well, let me see…I think he's 78 by now."

Kit looked away through the bars. "Why don't you tell me about your family…they sound interesting."

Jen raised an eyebrow and shifted him in her lap. "I don't think you wanna hear about them…they're just family."

Kit sighed. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

"It's not that I don't want to, it's that I don't want to bore you out of your mind." She whispered and followed his gaze.

Kit laughed softly and looked up at her. "Its not boring…I would like to hear about it."

"Alright…" She licked her lips and thought about where to begin. "I-I don't really know where to start."

"It's always easiest." Kit informed as he snuggled down into her lap. "To begin at the beginning."

Jen nodded and placed her hand on the crown of kits head. "I guess…hmm." She gently petted his head, not realizing it as she thought. "My great grand father was born in 1887, exactly one hundred years before I was born. I always thought that was kinda neat."

Kit sighed contentedly and nodded as Jen began to talk about her family. It was good for her to talk to him like this. It got her to relax around him and he got to learn about her history. Kit turned his head slightly and her hand bumped his ear. He purred happily.

Jen gasped and jerked her hand away due to both shock and surprise. She hadn't meant to pet kit like a dog. Oh crap! She probably offended him or something, he was growling at her. "Sorry." She mumbled and folded her hand behind her back.

Kit looked up at her and turned his head to the side in question. "Its alright, it acutely feels good." He reached up and gently scratched behind her ear.

Jen closed her eyes, that felt so nice. Kid of like…shoot she wasn't really sure how to explain it. But now she knew why dogs and cats liked it. "See." Kit said softly and lowered his hand. Jen nodded and resumed petting his head. Each being silent for a while.

"Why?" She asked softly.

"Why what?" Kit responded, after a moment.

Jen looked away, jeez she felt dirty asking this question. "Why did that feel good?" She blushed and looked away. Damn her flaming cheeks to hell.

Kit quirked an eyebrow for a moment and thought. "I don't know." He said slowly, as if he had suddenly been asked a question that was worth pondering. "I think it has something to do with kitsune social standards. We rub heads like this," He demonstrated, though it was a bit awkward from his position. "To great one another after a long separation, also it is common to show each other favors by petting or stroking…Why are you turning red?"

Jen looked away. Dear lord, what was wrong with her? He was talking about kitsune greetings for Peat's sake.

"I have forgotten how humans don't socialize the same way." He was silent for a moment before patting her leg. "You know, you haven't been one of our kind for very long, so I'm sure our ways seem strange. But please, give it a chance. You might find that you like it." He concluded.

Jen looked away and bit her lip. "Kit, I'm human." She tried to explain…but every thought that was going to come out of her mouth was either insulting to his race, or demeaning of her. So, she just left it at that.

Kit chuckled softly and ran his hand down the side of her face. "You feel intimated about this, don't you."

Jen shook her head yes and felt her receding blush come back with full force.

"I'm not surprised. You probably find our closeness a little intimate for your human tastes. Trust me, you're not doing anything bad. This is mearly how we show affection for each other and create bonds within our packs. This is very common."

"Packs?" Jen wondered quietly and scratched his left ear. What she knew about foxes was what she could get off of fan fiction. There, Kurama had always been the solo type. Sure he had Kuroune and a band of thieves…but people always depicted him as the ruthless never-could-be-tied-down bachelor.

Kit smiled and nodded. "Foxes usually live in packs of up to four. But that is only the young ones, adults tend to stay in more of twos. Usually a breeding pair." He took a breath. "Social is everything to a pack. We aren't like humans who trust, that word is only a joke here. So instead of trust, we build up our security with affection. We stay due to sex rather then friendship." He paused for a moment and thought. "There is an old kitsune saying, _'A way to a true pack is through the bed sheets'_. I think that explains it best, ne?"

Jen nodded. Boy this was strange, how could you love with out trust? Surely that couldn't be, not even in the Makai. "How can you call it a pack if there is no trust? How do you survive?"

Kit smiled and looked up to the ceiling. "I'm not really sure, but it works."

"Well, I trust you kit." Jen whispered, refusing to give up on a very human trait. "Or whatever you're kind calls it."

The red and white/silver fox looked up at his charge. She was staring out into space, trying to come to terms with what he was saying. He smiled and closed his eyes. He knew that there was no such thing as trust, but for some reason. He trusted this female, or as she put it 'whatever you're kind calls it.'

---

Banshee 01: Thank you for reading my story so far. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have any questions, please ask me. Have a good day and review.


	4. Chapter 4

**I do not own YYH or any other thing that sounds like I don't own it. (I do own Skilt, Kit, Io, Blade, Cedric, and Jennifer)**

**Chapter four: The high priestess**

Yusuke grunted as a knee was jabbed repeatedly into his exposed stomach. He felt like he was gonna puke. Now, don't get the idea that the great Urameshi Yusuke was some kind of weakling. Oh no, he was just feelin' a little worse for wear with the drugs pumping through his system, turning his every nerve into a screaming fireball. That and this stupid oni thought it was really fun to keep jabbing him in the stomach like that. Where the hell was the stupid Varity? Jab! prod, blow, dig, jab! That's all this stupid weakling seemed to be able to do!

Yusuke coughed and looked into the face of the purple oni. "Hey." He whispered softly.

"Uhh…?" The oni grunted stupidly. Oh my gods! The damn thing was so stupid that it didn't have a grasp for basic vocab. Even Kuwabara could have managed a somewhat intelligent response if a prisoner looked him in the face and said 'hey'.

"Ya done yet? 'Cuz I'm getting' a little bored with this whole knee jabbing thing." Yusuke twisted a heavily chained fist slowly in a circle, trying to look as bored as possible. "Gets a little old after a while," he leaned forward so that their faces almost touched. "Pea brain."

The oni reeled back as if he had been physically struck. "Pea brain? …uhh…no comprendo!" (uhh I don't understand)

Yusuke quirked an eyebrow. Some mighty tough and intelligent guys were working for Skilt, he could tell ya that much right now.

"No comprendo?" He echoed. "What the hell is that?"

"No comprendo el Japonese! Hablo Espanol!" (I don't understand Japanese! I speak Spanish!) The demon wailed miserably.

"What?" Yusuke demanded and glared down at the purple oni from his slightly elevated position.

"HABLO ESPANOL!" (I SPEAK SPANISH!) The demon raised his voice and repeated his phrase slowly, as if Yusuke was stupid.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GIBBERING ABOUT YOU SCUM BUCKET!" Yusuke roared back, just as slowly. He was unconsciously trying to level himself down to the oni's intelligence.

"Perhaps **I **could be of some assistance." A rather smooth and well toned voice said slowly.

Both Yusuke and Oni glanced up to find Skilt standing in the doorway, looking quite amused.

"Oh yea I knew it, pea brain here couldn't handle it so he called in reinforcements." Yusuke spat, as if he knew everything.

"Really?" The new guy demanded and walked over to Yusuke. "Had it ever crossed your mind, detective, that our friend here speaks Spanish?"

"Spanish?" Yusuke asked.

"Yes, he hails from the southern reigns of Makai. It's the part that links to Human world's Spanish speaking countries." The new comer stepped into the light and smirked. "Though demons don't admit it, our way of life is heavily influenced by mankind. It always has been; in fact we stole the concept of civilized culture from early man. Funny isn't it?"

Our detective stared the smirking demon down as he approached. The new comer was tall, maybe 6 even. He wore a red leather jacked that probably would have looked at home on one of the comics he had read, think it was called Trigun. Ya that was it, had that dude Vash the stampede. Hey…wait a moment, if that guy spiked that orange hair up, died it blond and exchanged those black sunglasses for yellow ones, he'd look just like him. Well, a way more pail version of him. Shit, this guy almost glowed...wait he **was** glowing.

"Yusuke, you really have no respect for people, do you?" The pale dude demanded and gently caressed the side of Yusuke's face.

"Hell no." Yusuke confirmed, sounding oddly proud.

"And you said that this oni was stupid." Mr. Pale said sadly and shook his head.

"Get to the point you Vash wanna be." Yusuke insulted, unable to come up with anything better.

"Ohh Yusuke, is that **really** the way you should talk to your host? I mean, I did send this oni in here to keep you company and all. " He pouted and the hand that was resting on the side of Yusuke's face dug in its claws leaving perfect crescent moon shaped holes.

Yusuke hissed involuntarily, more due to anger then pain. This was the creep he should have taken out by now. Crap!

"I love head wounds." Skilt whispered seductively into Yusuke's left ear. "They tend to bleed so easily with the slightest bit of persuasion." Skilt tilted his head forward and gently licked the blood that was slowly trickling down Yusuke's wounded cheek.

The detective grimaced, taking full notice as two pearly fangs brushed against his cheek. This guy was a vamp, great!

"Mmm." Skilt voiced lowly and pulled back. He turned giving the purple oni orders in Spanish as he did so. Yusuke stared blankly, the language too quick and foreign for him to follow.

The detective watched as Roberto ran out of the room. "What the hell did you tell him?"

Skilt looked up and licked his lower lip. "I told him to get some things for me."

Yusuke's hackles rose, this couldn't be good. "What kinds of things?"

Skilt placed a fingerless gloved hand beneath his chin and stroked it slowly. "Pliers, scalpels, needles, you know…the basics for torture."

Yusuke paled. Figured, he wanted variety and now he was gonna get it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Our delinquent flexed his hands and tugged at the chains. These damn things were tough, especially now that he had been reduced to little more then ¼ of his strength.

"Now, now; don't get itchy detective. " Skilt walked over and pressed a button on the wall. Yusuke's hands and legs were pulled straight. "It's your turn to have fun. Everyone else is already finished."

Yusuke rolled his eyes, trying to hide his nervousness. He didn't like this, something about the way Skilt moved told him that it wasn't gonna be any ordinary torture. He was hiding something from him. "What the hell are you gonna do to me?" Yusuke asked, hoping Skilt couldn't read anything in his voice. "And what do you mean 'everyone else is already finished'?"

Skilt licked his lips and pushed his bangs out of his coal black eyes. "Now Urameshi, I don't want to ruin the surprise."

"Ruin it." Yusuke commanded, voice growling and dangerously low.

"Never could resist a beggar." Skilt voiced just as low, but expressed more of a purr then a growl. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, god that guy needed to cut it. "First Yusuke, I'm going to torture you until you almost die. After that I'm going to give you the quaff of illusions. Once swallowed your freewill is in my control, you won't even be able to **breathe** without my permission. But don't worry, I'll take good care of you."

Yusuke gulped silently and licked his lips. This was friggin' bad! "You didn't answer the second half of my question pretty boy! What do you mean 'everyone else is already finished'?"

Skilt pouted and waved a free hand towards the door. "I didn't want to show you just yet…but I guess I can. Kurama, did Roberto give you what I needed?"

"What!" Yusuke voiced, too shocked to really realize that he said anything. To his horror and Skilt's immense pleasure, Kurama sauntered into the room carrying a leather satchel. They foxy redhead walked until he stood two paces away from Skilt, then bowed in one fluid motion. "Master." He voiced, though it held no emotion.

"Kurama!" Yusuke shouted and struggled against the bonds that held him. This was bad, really bad! "Kurama can you hear me?"

Skilt chuckled darkly and gently caressed the side of Kurama's neck. The fox-turned-human closed his eyes and leaned into the caress, looking as though he was in ecstasy. "See, such a good foxy." Skilt purred. "I couldn't believe how little it took to brake him. All he had to do was watch his human mother be slowly torn apart."

Yusuke's eyes narrowed and he forcefully fought the chains that bound him. "MONSTER! I'M GIVING YOU A ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL!" He roared.

"Hush." Skilt commanded and waved a clawed hand in Yusuke's direction. The next thing our detective knew, his head was getting to know concrete wall very well. Stars exploded in his vision like miniature fireworks and he instantly had a migraine. He closed one eye and watched Kurama.

"Kurama." Yusuke hissed painfully.

"Do you know what the best part of this curse is?" Skilt demanded lightly as he gently played with Kurama's hair. The fox purred and tilted his head into the touch, glazed green eyes sliding shut.

"What?" Yusuke demanded through clenched teeth.

Skilt smiled and took the leather sack from Kurama. "His consciousness is still awake in there. He would like nothing better right now then to strangle me to death with his own hands, but he can't do that…he can't even blink. Trapped inside, what a wonderful fate."

"You're sick!" Yusuke spat.

"I know." Skilt countered easily and withdrew a rather cruel looking blade from the pouch. "But lets not dwell on that now, Yusuke Urameshi, we have other business to attend to."

Skilt rounded on the trapped human. The detective tried his best to guard against the blade, but there was very little he could do. So it was no surprise that when Skilt raised the dagger above his head and slashed it across Yusuke's chest, that our detective had no hope to block or even lessen the sting of the cut. He threw his head back and screamed.

---

Kit opened his eyes as the cage jerked to a halt. They were here, wherever here was. Above him, Jen gasped and involuntarily grabbed his hand. Kit patted her knee soothingly while he pushed his aching body into a sitting position. After a few moments of silence, the sound of two people jumping to the ground reached their ears.

"We're here!" A cherry, very familiar voice sang.

"Io." Jen spat quietly and her hackles raised.

Kit reached out and smoothed down Jen's ruffled hair. "Easy, Miss Jennifer." He whispered.

"Easy my butt, that little doggy is gonna pay." She growled and settled herself down into a pouncing position. "My eyes are still stinging."

"Miss Jennifer." Kit scolded.

"That's the little jerk who hog tied you too." Jen informed as her tail lashed behind her slowly, showing her agitation. "I'm gonna hurt her."

Kit almost laughed at the black kitsune's feeble attempts to sound menacing. She probably **would** have been much more intimidating if she didn't look like a 13 year old pup. "Tell me miss," Kit said quietly as the blue inu bounded around the cage. "How exactly are you planning on harming her when you are strapped to the wall?"

"Uhh…With great difficulty." Jen said quietly, vocal skills switching to auto pilot. She turned around and studied her situation again. Our hero had forgotten that she was even tied. Jen grabbed the chains and gave them a strong tug. They hummed loudly, but did nothing else.

"They won't budge." Kit said slowly and focused his attention towards the far wall. "They're coming. Miss sit over there." He commanded and pointed to where he wanted her to move.

Jen nodded quietly and obeyed him, moving into the middle of the cage, most likely out of grabbing distance. Kit moved with her, guarding her front with his body. "Were going to sit here quietly and wait for that door to open." He informed and made himself comfortable.

"Io, quit running around like an idiot and inform his lordship that he can stop looking around, we got what he's looking for." A gruff voice commanded.

"Aye, Aye sir!" Io shouted and there was the sound of retreating footsteps.

Kit tensed as something knocked on one of the barred walls. "Don't get so excited in there, you'll get where your going soon enough."

Kit snorted. "Where exactly are you taking us?"

"Prince Skilt's castle. Seems that he's been looking for every black haired blue eyed tarot card reader in his domain." The wolf informed.

Kit's eyes narrowed, he knew they were coming. "Where are we now?"

The wolf sighed and tapped something against the wall again. "Outside the palace gates now…Io welcome back. So what has our esteemed price said?"

"H-He said that our bounty had to be…had to be tagged and inspected like everyone else." Io reported breathlessly.

"That so?" The crafty wolf whispered quietly. He rubbed his chin for a moment before giving Io another command. "Io, why don't you inform his majesty that **our** catch is the only one that caries a human brand of tarot cards. Not to mention that the female has a rather human name, Jennifer. Go see if that does any good."

"Alright." Io said tiredly. "But I don't think that'll do anything."

"We'll see." The wolf muttered and lit a smoking pipe.

Kit's nose wrinkled as the scent of smoking tobacco filled the cage. He didn't care for the strong odor. "Sir, if you insist on smoking that, could you kindly move downwind?"

The wolf laughed, "What's the matter boy? Nose to testy for the stuff?" He asked and blew a mouthful of smoke into the cage.

Kit rolled his eyes and looked away. This lout wasn't going to do anything nice for them. Or so he thought.

"Don't get your tail in a twist kitsune. Can't a fellow give his bounty a hard time?" The wolf barked a short clip of laughter before moving downwind. "Really all you foxes are so uptight and formal. Would it kill you to loosen up?"

"Would it kill him to get a breath mint?" Jen whispered softly to kit.

"Don't you start." Kit warned gently and leaned his body weight on her.

Jen stuck her tongue out and pushed back. Kit scoffed and shoved the girl. "Hey." He scolded playfully.

"Hey is for horses." Jen informed while returning his playful shove.

"This is no time to play." Kit whispered.

"I know." Jen whispered back. "But I can't help it."

"Really?"

Jen nodded and drummed her fingers on the hard floor. "I get hyper."

"Hyper." Kit forced a smile, this was great. "Why are you getting hyper?"

Jen licked her lips and took a deep breath. "When I get nervous I get hyper."

Kit reached over and pulled the girl into his lap. "Well, don't get nervous. We can just sit here like this and wait." He said simply.

Jen sighed and tried to ignore the unspent energy that was building up inside her. She moved lightly and entertained herself by tapping her fingers together, it was either that or run around this cage screaming like a banshee. She sat that way for a few moments. This wasn't working, so it was time for a new approach. Deep breath, hold it, release. Deep breath, hold it, release. Deep…oh boy, this was **not** working either.

"Miss Jennifer," Kit said softly and grabbed her hands. "Ladies do not fidget."

Jen took a deep breath. "Who says I'm a lady?"

Kit closed his eyes and shook his head. "Calm down, your not helping by working yourself up."

Jen nodded and laced her fingers together. Why was she getting nervous anyway? She was just going to meet the demon who imprisoned the YuYu crew—oh dear….

Suddenly kit pressed our hero into his chest, cradling her as if trying to shield her from something.

"K-Kit?" Jen cried from around the folds of his shirt where her head was pressed.

"He's here." The red and white/silver fox growled. "Skilt."

---

Blade lost interest in the two foxes after something more interesting caught his eye. Io was leading someone over to their cart, wait…not someone… holy hells, it was Prince Skilt himself and…Yusuke Urameshi? Why in the three worlds was he playing body guard to Skilt? Oh well, none of his business.

Blade inhaled deeply from his pipe before dumping the contents and grounding the embers out with his foot. He blew out the smoke, savoring the last bit as his lord came within talking distance.

"Welcome my price." He crowed before bowing low. "How may this humble bounty hunter help you?"

Skilt smirked and crossed his arms. "This bitch said you had something interesting to show me."

Blade nodded and pressed a button on the cage wall. The strips of cloth that had been thrown over the cage for privacy purposes, rolled themselves up to reveal what dwelled inside.

---

Skilt watched as the cloth rolled up. Huddled in the center of the cage, was exactly what he had been looking for. The prince strolled over to the cage and inspected what he could see from his angle. Two foxes were holding one another. A male, red and white/silver, growled loudly at him while the other, a small black female, peeked at him with wide blue eyes.

Skilt tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. These two did look like what he was looking for, but so did many of the others…though this was the first cage that the infamous red one had been in.

"Blade, is it possible for me to get a closer look at the girl?" The red leather clad prince asked.

"Of course." Blade whistled and the blue hounds ears perked up. Blade made a command with his hand as she bounded over towards the cage door.

The wolf turned on his heel and fiddled with the lock on the cage door. "Just be a moment your highness."

"I'm a patient man." Skilt assured the bounty hunter. "Aren't I Yusuke?"

The spirit detective only stood there, chocolate eyes blank.

--

Jen watched as dog and wolf got ready to separate them. This was bad, what if Skilt decided that she was to go in alone? She couldn't handle that. Sure Jen had always thought she was brave, our hero couldn't even count the times she had made up her own story where she had come in and saved the YuYu crew. Shoot, she had even beaten the play station 2 video game around 16 times. But, as previously mentioned, those had all been games. This was real life, and real life was a lot different.

The door of the cage swung open revealing the rouged, yet surprisingly handsome face of the wolf demon. He smirked and hoisted himself into the cage. "Alright, you heard the prince. Surrender the girl and nobody gets hurt."

Kit licked his lips and weighed his options. There was a 50/50 chance that Skilt knew about Miss Jennifer. He could let her go out there and see what happened or he could doggedly try to protect her from Skilt and the others. If he chose the first option, Skit could slay her outside the cage where he couldn't get to her; or Skilt could decide to take her into the castle,_ exactly_ where they needed to be. The second option was to protect her. That one would only end in his death, he wasn't any better and Skilt had them outnumbered by around 2,000 to one. Even if he did create plants to protect them both, his chance of being overrun by shear numbers was to great. He didn't like it, but he had no choice. Their best and only option was to allow miss Jennifer to leave the cage and be inspected by Skilt. Kit knew this was a gamble, but being caught this early in the game, he had no choice. All he could do was pray that Skilt didn't kill miss Jennifer right off the bat.

"I'll go." Jen said softly, surprising the red fox that held her. "Just don't hurt Kit."

"Miss?" Kit questioned softly, had she read his mind?

Behind them the wolf nodded and crawled over to unfasten Jen from the bars.

"I promised myself that I would protect you." She smiled at him and moved out of his arms.

"That's my job." Kit whispered softly as she was led towards the mouth of the cage.

---

Skilt smiled and walked over to the girl. She was scared, he could smell it from here. He 'hmmm'ed lightly as he inspected her. Not too tall, the coloration was perfect. "So, where are these human brand cards you were so intent on telling me about?" Skilt asked softly, feigning indifference.

"In the bodice." Blade called back, not allowing the girl to answer for herself.

Skilt smirked and his hand moved to her waist, shame she didn't answer, but the information was nice. "Should you get them, or should I?"

Jen turned red for some strange reason and fished her hand into her bodice. It took her a moment, but she found the cards on her left hip and carefully drew them out. Our hero looked at them shocked for a second. This didn't make any sense, before she had been sent on this quest, they had been wrapped in the cardboard box she had purchased them in. Though now they were in a black silk drawstring pouch, maybe Inari had something to do with it? She mentally shrugged, opened it and reached a hand inside. The cards were there, but not the little book that told her the meanings. With out it she was screwed—and not in the good way.

"Is something the matter?" Skilt questioned.

"No." Jen said slowly and took the cards out of the pouch. "Here they are."

"Excellent." Skilt crowed and reached out to take them from her. SMACK! Skilt pulled his hand back and rubbed it slightly, that had hurt a little.

Jen narrowed her eyes and moved the cards away from his hand. "You are not allowed to touch the cards without expressed permission from the reader or you are in the middle of a reading. Too much touching from outside forces harms them."

Skilt smirked and placed his hands behind his back. "Please excuse my ignorance, I haven't had a tarot reader before."

Jen nodded and ran her free hand delicately over the top of her cards. Why was she feeling so protective of them? The book had said that people shouldn't touch them more then truly necessary, but she had never smacked someone for just reaching out towards them before.

"Well, young lady, I do need an example of your skills." Skilt drawled.

"Of course." Jen sat down and immediately began shuffling her cards. "What do you wish to know?"

Skilt placed a hand under his chin and smirked. "Tell me, how exactly did my last fortune teller die?"

Jen blinked and paused in her shuffling. How in the heck was she supposed to know that? "I can't."

"Can't or won't?" Skilt demanded and crouched down to her level.

"Can't. Tarot cards are used to point people in the right direction. They can tell if there has been a death, but the way…that requires too many details, they are unable to communicate on that level."

"What a shame." Skilt muttered darkly and stood up straight. He watched silently as the small fox placed the tarot cards back into the pouch. "Well my lady, shall I escort you back to you're cage?" The prince extended his hand to her.

The fox reached out, then hesitated. Skilt smiled and nodded his head, she took a deep breath for courage, then grabbed his hand. The moment that their hands touched, Skilt felt as though his mind was thrown into a black fog.

_The first thing I remember…my sister and I were in a fight…_

Skilt felt his eyes glaze and focus on a point near the ground, as if trying they were trying to drill a hole through that space. Black ate along the edges, moving stealthy forward until the only thing he could see was black.

_I ran from the house…she was chasing me…_

Skilt tried desperately to focus. What the hell was going on! He was hearing that vixen's voice in his head! The vision of a remote forest snapped into his vision, erasing the black.

_I really don't know what how I got there … I only knew that I had made a deal with him. Kind of stupid now that I think about it. What kind of idiot would make a deal with him? Oh ya…me! Well anyway, the next thing I knew, Inari was telling me that the Reiki tentai was real, and I had to kill this guy named Skilt…_

Inari's picture flashed into his head, followed closely by many pictures of the Reiki tentai.

_He was the largest fox I had ever seen, I first thought he was Youko…but he wasn't Youko. After a nice bit of persuasion he convinced me to kill this Skilt person with the help of Kit, the red and white fox molded after Kurama and Youko. _

The pictures were running though his brain like a slideshow, almost too fast for him to keep up with.

_Then we were captured and brought to this castle. Skilt found us and he was…rather cute. I couldn't believe that someone like him could be the prince. Anyhoo, he asked me to give him a reading, I couldn't then we touched and… _

---

Meanwhile, Jen was going through the same thing. Pictures and voices swarmed around her, each begging to be heard and seen. One particularly loud one engulfed her and began its story.

_I looked down at that old man and informed him that this girl was special. Her colors, so rare and beautiful…I had to have her. I didn't care if she would kill me, I would do anything to have her._

The picture of an old, gray haired man forced itself before her eyes. The old man groaned and looked up at the prince.

_I laughed at him…laughed as the realization of his death flashed in his eyes. He knew he was gonna die. I called him a fool and teased his loyalty, I didn't need him, so why not? He was nothing but a stupid old fool. _

The man said something, but it was too low for Jen to hear it…or was it that the movie didn't really care what he said, she didn't know.

_He was old, too old to work for me. But at least he could perform one last service. He would do well to boost my powers. _

Jen watched helpless as Skilt advanced on the old man and opened his mouth, eye teeth growing into fangs.

_I didn't really care, he was food and completely defenseless. So it was no surprise that I decided to drink from him. _

Jen tried to close her eyes, but it didn't mater, open or closed. She could see it all. The black vixen watched as Skilt reared back then sunk his fangs into the old man's exposed neck. The old man, Cedric, screamed as the blood was drained from him.

_He was soo tasty…_

Cedric's eyes rolled up into his head and his skin turned paper white.

_So much blood flowing through his withered veins…_

Cedric's skin looked so tight, almost ready to split. His eyes bulged out of his head as if they had grown too large for his skeletal frame. Skilt pulled back and red blood spurted from the wound like a red fountain.

_Heh…he was dead. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Now all I needed was to…_

Jen couldn't take it anymore, this was too disgusting! How could anything like this have happened! She was gonna be sick! Without really realizing what she was doing, out hero shoved the movie away and let go of Skilt's hand.

---

The connection between fox and vampire ended as quickly as it began. Skilt reeled back from the vixen as if she had violent punched him. He stumbled over his clumsy feet and hit the ground. The prince lay panting there for a moment trying to recover from what he had experienced.

The fox had rolled over onto all fours and was in the process of being violently sick. She stopped for a moment, got a few good gulps of air, then continued.

Skilt looked up as his new toy walked over. The Vash wanna be lifted himself up, with Yusuke's help of course. "It's alright." He breathed softly, still recovering from the slide show. "I'm alright." The detective grunted softly before returning to his post.

Jen finished being sick just in time to be hauled to her feet by Skilt. He grinned down at her and gently stroked her head. "Excellent work Blade. She's exactly what I've been looking for."

The wolf walked over and smirked. "Always a pleasure, milord, always a pleasure. Now about my payment?" He asked while holding out his paw.

"Yes, yes.." Skilt muttered darkly. "There should be a red head round back, you know him as Kurama, he'll extract your payment."

The vixen in the princes arms moaned and tried to pull herself out. She felt sick again.

"Yusuke get the male out of the back and put him in confinement." Skilt ordered as he slipped an arm around the girls waist. "Once you're done with that, prepare an extra bed in my personal quarters."

"Ya, ya…I hear you." Yusuke muttered quietly, voice sounding playful.

Jennifer whimpered quietly as the vision of Cedric getting drained dry flashed before her eyes again. She tried to push herself away from the arms that held her, but he was too strong for her. With no where to go, Jen was forced to be sick all over again. Only this time across a rather expensive pair of waffle stompers.

"OH YUCK!" Skilt howled, "MY SHOES!"

end chapter 4

For those of you who have made it this far, I give you my deepest thanks. I know that I don't spend three pages thanking each of you personally for your dedication, but please know that you do have my utmost respect and gratitude. As always, please inform me if there is anything you don't like or if you have any ideas that may contribute to my work. What good is a story if the reviews don't have a say in what happens? So please review.

Yours truly,

Banshee01


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own anything in this chapter that sounds like I should own it. But, for reminders out there. I do own Jennifer, Kit, and my version of Inari.

**Chapter five: The Devil**

"Get in there, forbidden child!" A vicious sounding woman spat and pushed a very brutally damaged Hiei into the special holding chamber. The very same cell that he had the pleasure of sharing with the detective, the baka, and former thief.

"Hiei! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" Shouted a rather annoyed carrot topped teen in the background. Both woman and Hiei ignored him, even as he started to babble incessantly about the unfairness of it all, how they would kick Skilt's ass, why was Hiei so bloody, where the heck was Urameshi and Kurama la la lala la….

The teen cept blabbering on even as Hiei hissed in pain, involuntarily loud. The reason for the fire demon's discomfort was the black warded chains that slithered out like snakes and shackled themselves around very bruised/bloody wrists and ankles. After being securely dealt with the woman smirked and blew him a playful kiss.

"Sleep tight worthless one, I'll be back very soon." The evil woman, who I mentioned earlier, winked and turned slowly around. "I just need to report my findings to master Skilt, you play nice till then."

Behind her, the fire kroomie had enough determination left for one final verbal assault. "Go to hell you bitch."

The woman paused and looked over her left shoulder. "What makes you think, my poor dear, I'm not already there?" She chuckled darkly and marched off into the darkness.

"Hn…"

The woman left the injured fire kroomie and confused teen alone. Not the smartest thing. You see, Hiei wanted nothing more then to sleep and repair his damaged body in **silence**. The teen, on the other hand, wanted to loudly play twenty questions.

"So, uh, Hiei. Where does that woman keep taking you?" Kuwabara asked, voice grating on Hiei's last nerve.

The battered ebony haired demon rolled his ruby eyes up to glare dangerously at the teen. "Shut up."

Kuwabara, being the genius that he is, didn't seem to know the meaning of the phrase.

"Hiei, this is bad man!" He continued worriedly, "I mean, they could be dead or somethin'. Y-You don't think they could be killed do ya? I mean we are talking about Kurama an' Yusuke here."

"They'd be better off dead Kuwabara, trust me." Hiei said icily, too tired and angry to ignore his questions, yet awake enough to indulge the baka in the fate of their teammates.

That statement shocked the punk teen speechless. He sat there mouth agape like a rather dumb, suffocating fish.

Just when Hiei thought he had gotten the big oaf to stop talking to him, Kuwabara had the guts to prove him wrong.

"W-wadda you mean half pint?" He sputtered. "what happened?"

Hiei turned his head to the side and scowled.

"C'mon Hiei, tell me!" The teen babbled.

Hiei glared at him and growled. "Be silent. You have no idea what they went through. Heh, you probably wouldn't even last through five minuets."

Kuwabara grew red in the face. "How do you know I wouldn't last! Jeez, what the heck could be bad enough that even **I** wouldn't last through?"

Hiei rolled his eyes, all three of them, before answering. "You buffoon, what do you **think** they went through?"

Kuwabara shrugged. "I dunno, we're in a castle…so maybe torture?"

"_Very good_." Hiei spat sarcastically.

"Ya know, I'm getting' just a little tired of yer lip." Kuwabara growled.

"Hn."

The large delinquent took a deep breath and was just about to yell some sort of obscenity at Hiei when the door to their prison shot open and in flew a tightly bound prisoner. A prisoner that neither Hiei nor Kuwabara had ever seen before in their lives, yet could name instantly.

---

Jen sat alone, chained to a large dark wooded four-poster bed. Above her, white candles cast a soft shallow light around the room. Roses, jewelry, swords, spare clothing and other trinkets lay scattered in a rather messy yet tasteful way.

Our hero sighed softly, how the heck had she gotten into this mess? Oh ya, she made a deal with the devil. Okay, so maybe he wasn't the devil per say, but in her eyes, he was pretty darn close. Jen's hands wandered up to her neck where a little leather collar had been placed. It curved delicately around her throat and was held together by an old fashioned key type lock.

Jen ran her fingers around the lock, it felt simple enough. Her father kept the same kind of device on the fence. Her eyes wandered around the room as she fidgeted with the lock. Something flashed in the light, drawing her eyes to it. Jen moved to the edge of the bed. _What was that?_

There on a large red stained desk, glittered a small bladed jewel encrusted letter opener. It seemed to sparkle of its own accord; beckoning her towards it. The next thing Jen knew she was straining against the chain that held her to the bed. Her arm was stretched to the max, hand widespread to towards the metal treasure.

_If I could just reach it…_Jen thought, _come 'ere!_ Jen's hand stretched out even farther, almost to the point where it felt as though it would fall off if she kept pushing it. _Come here!_ Jen thought commanded, her hand began to shake. _Come Here!_ Her eyes slid shut as she commanded one last time. _Come HERE!_

Shink. Something metal pressed into her hand.

Jen cracked an eye open. There, in her slightly closed hand, lay the metal letter opener. It sparkled happily as if she had completed some great task. Jen heaved a sigh and brought the treasure back to the bed. With the curiosity of a cat, she plopped herself down and began to study the priceless treasure.

The blade was thin and seemed to flow into a point with a smooth cool grace . The handle was of gold and encrusted with many jewels; though emerald, ruby, and diamond was the general motif. Jen held the thin bladed treasure carefully. It was kind of funny, this small piece of metal was probably worth more then her mother's house, everything inside it, plus their car. Yet here it was, thrown onto a desk like it wasn't worth the time of day.

Jen gently bounced the thing in her hand; it was heavy. Carefully, she took her thumb and ran it down the length of the blade. Wow, it was so smooth an—OUCH! Jen dropped it and instinctively placed her thumb into her mouth. Instantly the salty, metallic taste of blood filled her senses.

Laughter erupted behind her.

Jen Jumped and looked over her shoulder. There, standing in the back of the room, was Skilt. He smirked and walked over to stand four feet away, on the left side of the expansive bed. "Careful, its sharp." He warned.

Jen took her thumb out of her mouth and grabbed the letter opener. "S-Stay back." She warned stupidly and brandished the letter opener before her like a sword.

Skilt held up his hands in the universal gesture of 'don't-shoot-I'm-harmless'. "Easy girl, I'm not here to hurt you, in fact," Skilt moved and sat down on the bed, though carefully staying out of lunging distance. "I'm here to offer you a job."

Jen almost sweatdroped. "Excuse me!"

"Do you have a hearing problem?" Skilt asked cheerfully, trying to be annoyingly cute, and succeeding. "I said, 'I'm here to offer you a job'."

Jen scoffed and tightened her grip on the letter opener turned dagger. "Do I look stupid to you?" She demanded, thought for a minuet, and rephrased. "Wait, don't answer that. Look, I know you know who I am and what I'm gonna do. So why in the seven hells, pardon my French, are you offering me a job?"

Skilt quirked an eyebrow. So, his little peek into her head hadn't gone unnoticed. Not that he had done that on purpose. He didn't even know how that had happened. The leather clad prince raised a hand up and delicately stroked his chin. "Perhaps I just like you."

This time Jen did sweatdrop. "Huh?"

Skilt smiled and leaned back against the post of the bed. "I like you, Miss Jennifer. You are unique, one of a kind. I like rarity as much as Youko Kurama loved to thieve. Tell me, how many creatures do you know of that have had divine intervention by a god, a spices change, and live to tell about it?"

"…"

Skilt again smirked and thrust a hand out to her. "Do you see? You are interesting. A diamond in the rough, and icing on the cake. With you as an ally, we could be unstoppable."

"If you win, everything dies." Jen whispered softly.

Skilt smirked and leaned closer to the girl. "If you deny me, **you** die."

"I say no, that's it? You kill me?" Jen asked slowly.

"Yup, pretty much." Skilt affirmed with a smile.

Jen bit her lip and studied the leather clad hottie. The character Vash the stampede flashed inside her mind. Why the heck hadn't she seen it before? But that was beside the point. The point was that if she didn't make this deal, she, kit, the YuYu crew; everything kaput! But, if she made the deal, she would live and kit and the rest might have a chance. What else could she do?

"Alright. You've got yourself a deal." Jen said softly.

"Excellent!" Skilt beamed and stuck out his left hand, obviously wishing to end the deal in a shake.

Jen growled mentally, but allowed herself to shake his hand. She was gonna regret this deal, regret it a lot. But at least the boys got to life one more day.

Skilt smiled as they ended the deal. This was going easier then he thought.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I humbly beg you're forgiveness on the lateness of this chapter. I finally got a good idea of how I'm going to end this story and it took me a little longer to figure out how I was going to knit the two pieces together. (Thank you for the ideas, they helped me so much. And since they have made the new rule where I can't thank you individually, please note that your ideas were used) . Also, you will be pleased to know (hopefully) that my idea has worked and this story now has an ending. So have a wonderful day and forgive this autheress for her lateness.

P.S. I might take a little longer for the chapters. This is my senior year and my school **loves** to pile the crap thick on the last year. (GO CLASS OF 06!)

Banshee01


	6. Chapter 6

**You know the drill, I don't own YuYu Hakusho, But I do own Kit, Skilt, Jennifer ect. you get the picture.**

**Chapter six: The tower**

Jen took her hand away from the prince. This wasn't good, here she was playing turn coat on the YuYu crew. What would they say? Oh she was such a bad girl! The worst of it was, she didn't even know what the heck she was supposed to do.

"So that's it?" Jen murmured.

Skilt titled his head to the side and peered at her over his black shades. "Is what it?"

"This is….well…IT." Jen bit her lip, trying to portray what she was trying to say. "I mean, you and I are allies now, no ifs ands or buts."

Skilt raised an eyebrow at his crewed servant. "Yes. Oh, but there are some things I forgot to mention."

"There's more?"

Skilt laughed and took off his sunglasses. With the grace of the undead, he expertly placed the bow (A/n: the part you stick behind your ear) in his mouth. "But of course." He ran a hand through his hair before continuing. "As per our agreement, you are now my slave. As such you are beneath me and all decisions I make are final. Of course, you are no ordinary slave. You will be my soothsayer—"

"—what—"

"—A fortuneteller. And you are never, ever allowed to interrupt me girl." Skilt took his sunglasses out of his mouth and replaced them on his face. "Inari is no longer you're god; Enma-dou is. Oh, last thing." Skilt leaned forward and placed a gloved hand underneath her chin. He smirked when Jen cringed. "It is my judgement on how and why you are punished. If you do even one thing that upsets me, I'll kill you."

"Okay." Jen whispered.

"Good." Skilt beamed and released her chin.

"But, I have a question." The fox girl said.

"I might have an answer."

Jen looked away, then looked back. "Kit. I mean, am I allowed to see him?"

"Hmm…now there's a big question." He mused, then smiled. This might be fun. "Sure, anytime you want." With that said Skilt stood up and quickly walked out of the door. Leather coat tails swishing out behind him.

---

Kurama sat silently on his bed, eyes downcast to the floor. To all the world he looked like an emotionless doll. No body knew the torment that was running wild through the fox like a hurricane.

"_Damn this body!"_ The boy spat mentally as he tried to move his hand. "_Why won't you move?"_

The outside of his body remained the same, unaffected by his inside turmoil. It was as if you could say that Kurama had, in fact, become two separate things. His exterior, and his interior. His exterior was nothing more then a doll, it only moved according to the will of another. But his thoughts or his mental image, was his to control.

Kurama again tried to move his hand, again he was denied. The power of the quaff of illusions was too powerful. What the heck was he going to do? This entire thing, was it completely out of his control?

"_What shall I do!" _ Kurama raged.

**Irritating, isn't it?** A calm, cool voice asked; interrupting the redhead's rage. The voice seemed to spill out from the back of his mind like a sliver fog.

"_Youko?" _Kurama asked.

**The one and only.** The being assured and gently asserted his presence beside his human counterpart.

"_What? H-how did you get out?" _ The boy spluttered, completely shocked at the situation. Kurama could feel his counterpart shrug.

Youko laughed darkly. **Have you forgotten, boy? The quaff of illusions is a form of torture. Once the victim has experienced a trauma powerful enough to begin to tear the soul from the body, the torturer then forces the victim to ingest the drink and permanently separate body from soul. Thereby creating a living doll.**

"_So, what does that have to do with you getting out?"_ Kurama asked.

Youko laughed for a moment, he couldn't believe his other half could be so blind. **Did you miss what I have just told you? Look at the big picture, Suuichi. **

Kurama sighed. _"You are speaking in riddles, Youko."_

Youko sent Suuichi a feeling of anger. **Suuichi, are you playing stupid or are you really just _that_ stupid?**

Suuichi took a deep breath and forced himself to control the feelings of anger and terror that were building up in his stomach. _"I'm sorry Youko, but I can't see the angle you are coming from."_

Youko sighed and placed a clawed hand over his face. **I can't believe we've slipped this far Suuichi. But, I guess if an explanation is necessary, then an explanation you shall receive. **

Youko sighed before continuing.

**When you saw that poor creature get torn to shreads—**

"_THAT 'POOR CREATURE' WAS OUR MOTHER!" _ Suuichi growled, completely shocked at the emptiness of Youko's tone.

**--No, it wasn't. The smell was off. Gods, what happened! You used to be able to see the hole through any situation, Suuichi! Have you slipped into humanity so far that the moment you see something like that, you instantly assume that it's the real thing!--**

"…"

**Now, as I was saying, **Youko continued, all anger leaving his voice. **When you saw the imitation get ripped to shreds, you're soul wanted to die. So, it detached itself from _us_ as well as from our body. Skilt hadn't taken into account that you and I, while being parts of the same soul, are still separate entities. As your soul decided to leave, I decided to take control, like I should have done years before. But, during the process of your soul retreating and mine surfacing, he slipped us the drink. We became trapped between both worlds. You inside the mind, I halfway into the body. You are where you are supposed to be, I am caught between both. Meaning—**

"—_you have control?—"_

Youko shrugged. **Of course, but its weak. The control is not enough to really do anything, maybe blink and cause attacks to go awry. Other then that, Skilt has us by the balls!**

"_At least we have something."_ Suuichi pointed out.

Youko nodded in agreement.

There was a rattling sound as the doorknob twisted, Skilt was coming. The connection between the two shattered like a dropped glass ball. The dead eyed, doll looked up as its master entered the room and smirked.

---

Skilt entered the room of his crimson haired slave. He sat on the narrow bed, glossy green eyes turned upwards towards him.

"Kurama." Skilt purred and walked over to the—hmm, what could he call him? He didn't really have a soul, so could he still be called a mortal? He was more like a cultivated human now.

The boy obediently stood and awaited his orders.

Skilt smirked and ran a hand through his hair, banishing the thoughts. It didn't matter what he was, so long as he obeyed. "Kurama, I want you to tail Jennifer. If she goes anywhere near Kit and the others, Let me know and inform me on what they say."

Kurama nodded in agreement, before asking in monotone. "Where is she?"

"Inside my chamber, don't let her see you." Skilt turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

Behind him, the fox-turned-human was bowing low. Green eyes, swirled with gold. After being sure Skilt had gone, Kurama straightened out and Walked to his post, outside of Skilt's door.

---

"Hey Hiei."

"Hn."

"Hiei!"

"…"

" sigh Fine, don't answer."

"…"

"D'you think should we poke 'em?"

"Hn."

"I'm serious, I mean he looks like he's dead!"

"Do what ever the hell you're going to do, just shut up." The angry voice of the fire demon muttered darkly.

"Okay." The Elvis haired teen agreed and reached out a long finger to poke the unconscious fox that had been thrown into their dungeon cell.

Poke. Poke. Poke.

"…"

Poke. Poke. Poke—CHOMP!

The carrot topped teen let out a shriek of pain as pearly teeth latched onto his hand and bit down hard.

"GLLLLAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The echo of Kuwabara's scream seemed to run throughout the entire castle.

---

Jen looked up from her cards as a scream echoed through the castle. She knew that scream!

"Kuwabara?" She whispered quietly and glanced towards the door. The very door that Skilt himself had exited after they had made their deal.

With out another thought, Jen threw down her cards and scooped up the letter opener she had tried to use against Skilt. Carefully, she slipped the blade under the leather collar and pulled outwards. Rawhide creaked and strained, but finally gave way.

Once freed, the midnight black kitsune jumped off the bed and ran out the door, hoping to follow the sound of Kuwabara's scream.

---

Kurama's ears perked up as Skilt's chamber door flew open and Jennifer ran out. The jail bird paused for a moment, listened then ran down a corridor.

Kurama turned gracefully on his toes and followed after the girl, as instructed.

---

Meanwhile, back in the cell. Kuwabara was busily trying to pull his bleeding meat hook out of an unwilling fox's mouth.

"Le'me go!" The teen yowled in frustration.

Hiei smirked and watched the eye-candy placed before him. It seemed that even blood thirsty fire demons got their wished granted some times. Hiei tilted his head to the side and smirked. Too bad the rabid fox hadn't sunk its jaws around the baka's throat instead. Ah well, not everything could be perfect.

Kuwabara brought his foot up and propped it against the foxes shoulder. "GEROFF!"

---

Kit opened a black eye just enough to see what he was chomping. His vision was blurred, but that was to be expected. Not many demons **could** see clearly after being beaten.

"GEROFF!" Came the gruff command from the owner of the hand. A foot was placed on his shoulder for leverage.

Kit managed to blink a few time and clear away the blur. Everything snapped into crystal clarity. Before him sat a gruff human teenager who probably would have looked intimidating if his face hadn't been scrunched into a pain filled crease.

Our foxy friend instantly spat out the gross tasting hand and rolled away from the bleeding human.

The boy bellowed a few choice curses at him, the world, and another human named Urameshi.

At the sound of Urameshi, Kit launched himself at the teen. The carrot topped boy barked a short yip of surprise as the fox stopped mer inches from his face. "What did you say?"

The teen paled. "F…Fuck Urameshi?" He whimpered pitifully.

"Urameshi! Wait…are you Kuwabara?" The fox demanded, grass green eyes shining madly.

The blue clad human gulped before sheepishly saying. "Yep."

"Inari be praised, I've found you!" The white clad demon settled himself back on his haunches before turning towards the other demon. "You are Hiei, I presume?"

The blacked demon glowered at the new comer. "Who the hell are you."

"Kit, Inari sent me and my mistress to rescue you." The fox gushed in relief. His mission was halfway completed.

"Well, that explains it then." Came Hiei's dark voice from the corner he occupied.

Kuwabara sweatdropped and laughed nervously. "Explains what?"

Both demons looked at each other, knowing what the other was thinking.

"You stupid baka, LOOK at him." Hiei spat.

"Oh, that!" Kuwabara said stupidly. "Hey…why do you look like that anyway?"

Kit settled himself down. "I believe it was for two reasons." He explained. "The first is obvious. I am an exact copy of Kurama, therefor I know all he does, and in theory I could get my mistress in without detection. The second is a guess." He looked away.

Kuwabara grunted for him to continue.

Kit smiled. "It was to make her more willing to help us."

---

Jennifer cursed her luck as she wondered around completely lost. With a sigh, she vowed that this would be the last time she would run off in the direction of a scream. She blinked and paused. That scream had been Kuwabara…what in the name of sweet snow would make **him** scream?

Suddenly the image of Hiei frenching Kurama flashed before her eyes. "Yup that would do it." She said quietly and laughed at herself.

Our hero shook her head and continued on. She had to find her way out of here.

---

Behind our unsuspecting hero, Kurama watched her with dead eyes.

"_So, that kitsune pup is Jennifer, ne?" _Suuichi whispered quietly—wait a moment, why was he whispering? She couldn't hear him.

**Why, so it is…**The deep voice of Youko purred. **Let's make ourselves known, shall we?**

"_What are you talking about?" _Suuichi asked.

Youko only sent him a feeling of a smirk.

Outside, Kurama sneaked out from behind a pillar and was about to cleverly hide behind another when his foot turned sideways and he lost his balance. The doll made no noise or move to protect himself as he tipped sideways and hit the ground with a loud thud.

Suuichi was forced to watch the events happen at a sideways angle. In front of him, the kitsune seemed unaware of his body. She didn't even turn around, in fact, She kept going!

"I am so stupid!" She laughed and slapped the side of her head with her hand, before turning a corner and disappearing from sight.

**Odd…**Youko commented, and quirked an eyebrow. **You'd think that the kitsune would notice a bright red human falling down behind her.**

"_She's not normal." _Kurama mused softly. _"There's something…strange, almost magical about her."_

Youko gasped dramatically, **So you noticed this time without me pointing it out! I'm very proud of you Suuichi!**

Suuichi rolled his eyes and said nothing.

On the outside, Kurama picked himself up and continued to follow the oblivious fox. She had resorted humming to herself and swaying slightly down the hallway.

Youko sweatdropped. **Has that kit no self pride? She's acting like…**

"_Wait…" _Suuichi murmured, _"I know this magic, she's not a kitsune. Her form has been altered--she's human."_

---

Jennifer hummed quietly to herself and swayed. If there was one thing she hated, it was being lost. Singing helped her stay calm, a nice little trick her mother taught her. It was also a factor that helped her decide to take two years of choir in high school.

She smirked as she glanced around, she was alone so…what was better then singing YuYu Hakusho songs, lord knew the freaking theme was right. Without thinking, she began the second verse of Our seasons.

"Tomaranai setsunasa mo

Ikutsu mo no deai mo,

Kirameite 'ru

Takara mono da yo." She sang though she hit a wrong note. Recovering quickly she continued on.

"Ima subete ga

Boku-tachi no kisetsu wo terashite

Donna toki mo

Wasurenai yo

Kimi to onaji umi wo mite 'ta

Ano hi no koto wo…"

A shoe scuffed the floor behind her.

---

"I'm not eager to stop

As long as our meetings aren't too old

It glitters

It's a treasure." Jennifer sang.

Kurama watched her carefully, keen eyes brimmed with gold.

"Now our whole

Season is illuminated

Also don't

Forget the time

We spent all day

Watching the same sea…"

Kurama's shoe scuffed the floor. The doll looked down at the strange sound.

Ahead of him, Jennifer whorled around. Her eyes alighted on him and she paled considerably.

Youko scoffed. **She didn't hear us fall over, but a small shoe squeak is enough to capture her attention! I don't understand this girl.**

"Heh, heh! Hi?" She waved stupidly.

---

_Oh god, he heard me…OH GOD ITS KURAMA! SHOOT ME NOW! _Jennifer thought in despair as she waived at him stupidly.

Kurama blinked, turned and hid behind a column.

"huh?" Jennifer demanded.

Kurama scooted a little further out of sight.

"K-Kurama?" Jennifer asked and walked over to him. In response, the red head circled the structure, always keeping out of sight.

"What the heck has gotten into you?" She demanded, suddenly it donned on her. What if he had escaped and was traumatized for some odd reason. "Oh my god! Kurama listen, I'm here to rescue you!" She gushed and tried to get close.

Kurama only ducked around the column again.

"K-Kurama!" Jennifer sputtered as he ducked out of sight yet again.

Jennifer halted on her side of the column; Kurama mimicked her, stopping so she couldn't see him. Our hero took a step right, Kurama took a step left. She moved, he moved. She didn't, he didn't. Hmmm…our hero was beginning to sense a pattern here.

"Kurama, are you ok?" Jennifer asked quietly as she peaked a little over the side. She couldn't see his face, but his hair was flying wildly, as if he was shaking his head extremely vigorously.

"Kurama, I couldn't tell by the rattle if it was yes or no." Jennifer sighed and put her head in her hand. There was something very wrong, and he wasn't going to be able to help her. In fact, he very well was going to hinder her.

---

"_Well, Youko…you have her attention, now what?"_ Suuichi demanded.

**I'm thinking!** The fox spirit growled.

"_You didn't have a plan!" _Shouted the angered red head.

**For once in my life, no I don't. Honestly Suuichi, I didn't think it would work.** Youko mumbled.

"_Oh for…well do something! Blink at her, do anything that she might see as a response!" _Suuichi suggested.

**You think I haven't thought of that! I've already shaken our head!**

"_Well, how is she supposed to see that? Were behind a column Youko!" _Suuichi cried bitterly.

**Oh yes, and blinking is really going to help then!** The fox spirit argued bitterly.

"Kurama." Jennifer whispered.

They heard her turn around.

"I don't know what happened to you, but I guess that you won't be able to help me. " Jennifer took a deep breath. "I can't promise you anything, but if I can…I'm gonna get you the hell outta here. Just keep fighting, I know you can beat whatever it is that's making you like that. You're **Kurama**."

Jennifer turned quickly on her heel and dashed down a hall way.

**I think she likes us…**

"_Youko…how could you even think of something like that at a time like this?"_

**Hmm…quite easily, actually. **

The two said nothing more as their body removed itself from behind the column and silently began to follow the girl again, as per its instructions.

---End chapter six---

Thanks again for reading my story. You're responses were very helpful and welcome. Including the infamous bad reviews. I love they way you guys send me ideas. This way I can cater to both your and my tastes. Oh, I must also beg your pardon if this story is beginning to turn into a marry sue. I will try and correct that, I like marry sues about as much as the rest of you people. Well, enough of my ramblings. I shall now go to work on the seventh chapter. Please review, remember your ideas are always welcome!

Banshee01


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter seven: The five of cups**

**Hello again, I've finally written. Please forgive my lateness bows **

**here is the next chapter with a little review. Chapter begins after the thing-e-ma-bobber if you wish to skip it. Enjoy**

**PS. You know what I own and what I don't. SO please drink responsibly!**

"Kurama." Jennifer whispered.

They heard her turn around.

"I don't know what happened to you, but I guess that you won't be able to help me. " Jennifer took a deep breath. "I can't promise you anything, but if I can…I'm gonna get you the hell outta here. Just keep fighting, I know you can beat whatever it is that's making you like that. You're **Kurama**."

Jennifer turned quickly on her heel and dashed down a hall way.

**I think she likes us…**

"_Youko…how could you even think of something like that at a time like this?"_

**Hmm…quite easily, actually. **

The two said nothing more as their body removed itself from behind the column and silently began to follow the girl again, as per its instructions.

"Jen no Baka!" Jennifer chided to herself silently as she ran away from Kurama. "What the bleep was with that little speech! Duh, You're Kurama, you can do it! Grrr…you're so stupid! Honestly girl…"

Jen had no idea what had possessed her to have that little pick up speech with him. First he caught her singing to herself, then she tried to console him? What was with her! She was supposed to be freeing them, not playing psychologist!

A lump of nervousness pooled in her stomach, the kind she usually got right before a big test, or choir performance. Normally, a teacher or her friend would have gotten her to quiet down, and that would have been the end of it. Kit had quelled it once in the cage when he had held her. But now there was no one but herself. It seemed that without kit or someone to turn her attentions away from her anxiousness, it was able to reach a whole new peek.

Jen's pace increased to where she was almost running. She had to find the boys now! O gods, what was she dong here? Why had she even agreed to this!

Jen rounded another corner in a full out run. Her mind now set completely on finding Kuwabara, then the rest, breaking them out, and then running like hell! To where, she didn't know. They would have to fill in that part—she found them, had her two days of playing hero and now she was done with it!

But for her ending to begin, she had to find the crew first. And that was proving to be a difficult task. So far she had wondered around like an idiot, managed to get herself lost, AND get herself into a room so large that it could probably have fit Safeco field inside it easy-peasy-lemon-squeeze (sp?)!

Oh, where were they! WHY COULDN'T SHE FIND THEM!

"ARGH!" Jen growled aloud while she pressed her hands to the side of her head. With great effort; our hero forced herself to stop running and try to think logically. Flipping out wouldn't help. She needed to take this one step at a time!

"Just take a deep breath, chill out, and reason Jennifer." Jen ordered herself soothingly. "That's it girl, take a deep breath and think."

"Now," Jen said as quietly and calmly as she could. Desperately trying to quell the nervousness that pushed bile up her throat. "If I was a Vash wanna be with mondo weirdo vampire powers. where would I keep my prisoners? Answer: The dungeon. Okay," Jen took a breath, ignoring the urges that ordered her to run screaming through the castle and/or barf in a corner. "Where would dungeons be located?" She thought for a moment before a retort came. "In the deepest darkest pit of the castle, probably guarded by big creepy-crawlers. So…I've got to go down. Next staircase I come across that goes down has got my name on it!"

Jen took another calming breath. This was helping, but not much. Damn her nerves, they were going to be the death of her!

With another deep breath and a renewed mission. Jen again set out at a brisk pace and began to search for the stairway to hell—err—dungeon.

---

Kuwabara blinked. Okay, this was a little too much for him. Here was this fox-ish-thing telling him that he was sent here to rescue them by some dude named Inari. Not only was he here to rescue them, on no; he looked like Kurama, sounded like Kurama, and he even dressed like him. What was up with that!

Before him the white clad demon, named Kit, settled himself down on his haunches. With a graceful flick of his hand he pushed his silvery locks away from his face. The gesture was better suited for a woman, but he somehow managed to pull it off with some masculinity. Odd, but it fit.

"I think it was to make her more willing to help us." He said quietly, as if trying to understand the notion himself.

"Who more willing?" Kuwabara wondered.

The fox turned his battered face towards him. "Jennifer." He said the name softly, as if it were a great secret.

"Jeh-ni-foor?" Kuwabara mimicked, rolling the strange name around on his tongue.

"Yes."

From his corner, Hiei listened to their conversation. So, Inari had sent in a backup team to fix Urameshi's mistake. Hn, how typical...

"So, all we gotta do is wait for this Jennifer guy to get here?" Kuwabara questioned, picking up the conversation again.

"Correct. After she—"

"—She?" Cut in Kuwabara.

"Yes…" Kit said slowly, noting the boys negative reaction.

"You never said anything about Jennifer being a girl! There is no way I'm getting rescued by a chick!"

Kit's ears reflexively settled back against his hair. Did he honestly have to scream that loudly in such a confined space?

"I don't understand?" Kit said confused.

"I ain't getting' rescued by a girl! Men are supposed to take care of themselves!" The teen fumed. This was bad, how could he ever live that down? It was bad enough that they had all gotten ambushed by Skilt. Now he was going to be rescued by the very gender he had sworn on his male pride to protect? Irony was such a bitch!

---

Kit rolled his eyes. This was absolutely wonderful! He was separated from Miss Jennifer, locked away in a cage, and now had do deal with the ego of a sexist teenager. Well, time to appease.

Kit glanced around their cell. Everyone save himself was warded with heavy chains. It took Kit about a second to realize that those chains were specifically meant to attach themselves to a certain flavor of ki. Above them, warded strips of paper guarded against youki and rei summoning, they also affected memory. Obviously who ever had created this prison had decorated it with the Reiki tentai's physical, mental and energy levels in mind.

But, why were the chains not attaching themselves to him? Wasn't he supposed to mimic one of their members? Hmm…

Kit stood and walked towards a set of chains. A black inscription hummed lightly to life when he touched it, but did nothing else. The fox smirked and took a step back. He was a close match, but not close enough to cause the chains to react. Therefor he might be able to break them out of the cell and catch up with his mistress.

Kit placed a hand underneath his chin and gave one last glance towards the ceiling. It might be possible, in fact he was 50 of it. His eyes strayed back towards the chains.

"I think I have a way out." Kit said quietly.

"I mean…Wha?" Kuwabara demanded. He had been so distracted by his own incessant ramblings that he hadn't taken the time to notice that no one had been listening.

"I believe I can get us out." Kit restated, boosting his own confidence in the process.

Hiei glanced darkly at the Kitsune. Perhaps Inari's idiots had their uses.

Kit reached a clawed hand up and delicately picked a seed out of his long silver locks. Once the proper seed was chosen, he placed it in his hand the way one would flick a penny. The fox carefully took aim and fired.

The seed arched through the air. As it flew, all of Kits concentration went to the seed. He could feel the plant life inside, barely conscious, waiting to be born. In that small space of time, he gently he inserted his ki into the plant, making it more alert to its surroundings. Nature took its coarse and the seed began to grow, slowly at first but quickly gaining speed due to the miracle-grow like powers of the Kitsune.

By the time the seed had landed, it was already mature enough to take hold in the unforgiving cracks of the stone wall that surrounded the cell door. Green tendrils shot up and grasped at the frame and hinges.

"HOLY COW! I DIDN'T KNOW IVY COULD DO THAT!" Kuwabara shrieked as the plant situated itself about the door.

Kit smiled. This was perfect, everything was going to be—uh-oh!

Our foxy friend had just enough time to realize that something was coming at him.

WHAP!

Thick chains wound themselves about his body like the crushing embrace of a snake. With out warning, they pulled backwards. Wrenching the unprepared fox off his feet and into the wall behind him.

Kit hissed through his teeth as his head made contact with the wall. He sat there stunned as his vision blacked out, then tried to come back in again one pixel at a time.

"Hn, baka kitsune." Hiei hissed darkly.

---

**To be continued…**

**I would like to beg your forgiveness one final time before I say goodnight. I realize that I haven't written as much as I would like and that is for two reasons:**

**1) school is nuts.**

**2) My muse went on a vacation without telling me.  And there was no way I could continue writing until she had rested up and came back into my head so I could finish.**

**Well anyway, enough of my ranting. Have a wonderful night.**

**Oh, if I don't review before the holidays.**

**HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR! AND A VERY MERRY WHATEVER! **

**Good night. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter eight: The Emperor in reverse**

This was insane, how long could this stupid room be anyway! It had felt like Jen had been walking for hours and hours on end. A quick glance at her watch confirmed…that Inari had removed her watch!

"GREAT, THANKS ALLOT! THAT REALLY, REALLY HELPED!" Jen shouted and grabbed her wrist.

Our hero took a deep breath, there was no use getting mad, even if there were lot of problems and little inconveniences. What was the point? It's not like she could hurt anything.

Sighing, Jennifer cast a tired glance about the room. She was surrounded by black space, stone, and a few pillars thrown in here or there to break up the monotony. Didn't work.

The floor wasn't any better. It seemed to be composed of smooth black stone that caught what little light there was to be had. Jen bent over and gently stroked her hand across the marble. It was smooth, like polished glass. Inside the stone's blackness, her reflection peered back. Jen smiled and her image smiled too. Jen gently traced the edge of her likeness' face, it was a perfect copy though seemed to be muted somehow; like someone had taken a blending tool and softened the edges.

"Whoa; I have changed." Jen whispered while she gently touched the floor. This was the first time she had actually had a chance to look at the new body Inari had given her. Compared to the old one…this one was good enough to grace the center fold of many a model magazine.

The reflection winked.

Jen froze, she hadn't done that.

The reflection brought a hand up to its mouth and blew her a kiss.

"AHHH!" Jen shrieked and jumped to her feet.

The image grabbed its midsection and laughed silently at her, obviously enjoying itself. Jen rolled her eyes; just what she needed—floor space with a sense of humor. After a few moments of mirth at our hero's expense; the reflection took a deep, calming breath; quelling all laughter at once.

Jen quirked an eyebrow as the reflection donned a serous face and held out its hand. Not really sure what to do Jen just stood there silently. This did not please the image and it made itself known.

Our hero sweatdropped as the image threw itself down and started to kick and scream in silent agony.

Reflection or real life, tantrums were effective.

"Okay! okay." Jen hissed and dropped to her knees.

The image glanced up from under an arm that it had thrown over its eyes. Those pools of sapphire lit up as it stuck out its hand again. Jen rolled her eyes, but this time held her hand out to the figure's awaiting appendage.

Our hero's eyes grew wide as her reflection's hand acutely reached out of the polished stone and grasped her firmly around the wrist in a trapeze-man's grip. Involuntarily our fox's arm jerked back, but that seemed to be what the figure wanted her to do. It used Jennifer's momentum to heave herself out of the stone.

Jen could only stand in disbelief as the image brushed itself off and fixed her hair. Once it deemed itself ready, the image turned towards its real counterpart and, with the grace of a dancer, it bowed.

Jen took an involuntary step backward. Maybe that hadn't been such a good idea; what if this thing was something Skilt cooked up to kill her. And Jen, being the smart one she was, had just loosed the thing.

Grrreeeaaat.

The translucent creature again held out her hand, but this time Jen decided not to take it. Tantrum or no tantrum; she couldn't risk the possibility of an attack. Kinda stupid now, seeing as how that thing was out of the stone.

Before her, the creature smiled brightly and took a step forward. Jen took a step back. The reflection's grin faltered, this wasn't the reaction it had in mind.

"Uh...shoo, go away." Jen said quietly and flicked her hands at it like one would shoo a mouse.

The translucent being's mouth fell open, the face clouded up and she began to cry; displaying the attitude of one who should be screaming her brains out—but she never made a sound.

Jen took another step back, she should get out of here. Yup, good idea. That thing was a little to weird for comfort. The moment she turned her back to flee, the being grabbed. Jen gasped in surprise.

The image gently began to push her forward.

"W-what are you doing, stop!"

They still kept moving. Jen pushed backwards.

The image gently added more force, more than what Jen thought she would possess. Unready for it, our hero was pushed forward and into one of the walls in the room.

Jen's hands shot out and she pressed them against the wall, this wasn't good!. She tried again to back up, but she had no room to maneuver. The image moved its hands so that the left slipped around Jen's waist and her right slid down her shoulder to her wrist. The reflection then guided Jen's hand towards one of the stones while it pinned her to the wall with its body.

Our hero's fingertips brushed lightly against rough stone. Jen made a small sound at the back of her throat, what was happening? Behind her, the image pressed her hand into the stone; Jen's hand, being stuck under the images, was forced to press flat against it.

A shudder ran through the wall, starting from the bottom and running up into the darkness that posed as a ceiling. Jen's breath caught in her throat, this looked bad.

Beneath her fingertips, the stone began to quiver. Both girls looked up as a black hole began to appear. The one in back smirked as the hole grew, becoming half their length in a matter seconds.

Jen tried to take a step back, but the reflection's grip was too strong. Before her, the hole was now large enough to admit her passage. The image's grip shifted Jen had a moment to gasp before she was shoved roughly forward into the darkness that the stone had abdicated for her.

Jen landed in the dark on a wet surface, behind her the image waved good-bye. Seconds later the wall closed and the reflection stood alone; alone in the dark room. It laughed playfully before disappearing in a flash of light.

Then there was nothing in that vast room, save one red headed boy who quickly turned and fled.

---

"Oh gross, what is that smell?" Jen whispered quietly. "Wait, I don't wanna know."

That said, our disgusted heroin lifted herself to her feet and tried to peer around her. By now, her eyes had adjusted to the light. She couldn't really see. But, from what she could make out, things didn't look good. Rough boards of various sizes lay about, all of them decorated in chains. Above her, things like metal bird cages swayed back and forth, as if pushed by the wind. On her left side, a fireplace glowed dimly.

Our hero picked her way carefully across the room, desperately trying to ignore the liquid that was sticking to her bare feet as she moved. In a few moments, she was standing by the fire place. Resting by her foot was a poker.

Jen picked up the poker and stirred the fire to life. It glowed brighter, but would not give off anything more, unless she fed it. The human-turned-fox reached down scanned about for anything that would feed the dying flames. Her hand brushed against something hard, most likely wood. Not wanting anything that would burn for long, Jennifer carefully felt along until she found a small, yet well built piece. Once selected, the said piece was placed into the fire place where the coals glowed hot. Instantly demonic fire consumed the log and cast bright yellow light around the room.

What our hero saw most defiantly was not what she expected to see.

Jen gasped and fell back against the stone of the fireplace. She was standing in a torture room! Blood—new and old—was splattered across the walls, decorating it in hues of black, brown and crimson red. Above her, half decayed limbs displayed gooey gobbets of flesh hanging from boney arms and legs. One of the many appendages twitched, sending an unidentified foot to fall and splatter on the ground like an overripe tomato. Our hero pressed herself closer to the fire place while her eyes scanned the room.

The left and back walls were covered in blood, torture devices and dead, rotting corpses. Jen's knees grew weak as her vision panned to the right wall. Blood, brown stuff, and more blood littered the entire wall—save for a large door that would allow something the size of a 4X4 to pass through. Was it an exit? Gods who knew? Something rotting and smelly plopped down by her right. Our hero gagged and headed for the black space. Anything had to be better then this room!

As she ran the delicate scent of sewer-system, rotten egg, and vomit assaulted her. Jen gagged. She was gonna puke, but not in here. Not were something wet and fleshy could drip on her!

Jen never ran that fast in her life. She barely realized that she reached the door, and flung it open. All she cared about was finding a good, flesh free corner to toss her cookies in.

---

Needless to say, our hero seems to be having a wonderful time spilling her stomach contents onto the floor. But, that's not something that really should be written about in detail. Let us instead switch to the beloved heroes inside of that dreary cell. Which, in a weird twist of fate, happens to be in the same room our heroin is in the process of…lets just say **painting**.

Now, If some unacquainted person were to run into a room in which you were occupying, and began to puke in it; your reaction would be to get up and most likely find out who it is. The YuYu crew is no different…

"Hey you hear that?" Kuwabara asked quickly.

"What the hell are you muttering oaf?" Hiei demanded, voice deep and gruff from exhaustion.

"I don't know, sounds like coughing." The orange haired teen got to his feet and walked towards the doors as far as the chains would allow.

Kit stood and peered through the darkness, grass green eyes glowing softly. "I don't see anything…"

"But I'm sure—"

"—SHH!"

The teen fell silent as Kit glided towards the door, even with the heavy metal chains his grace was unquestionable. He again peered through the darkness.

"Ugh…I think I just lost my shoe." A voice whined.

Kits face broke into a grin and his tail began to sway slightly. He looked over his shoulder at the other two demons. "Its Jen!"

---

"Jen!"

Jennifer looked over her shoulder from her kneeling position on the floor. Behind her, a large wooden door with the classic barred window stood framed by strong, impenetrable gray stone. Our hero staggered to her feet, spit, and wiped her mouth.

"Kit?" She called weakly.

"Yes, here."

A rush of excitement ran through her, chasing away her nausea. She found them! Our hero jogged across the short distance towards the door. "Kit? Oh kit I'm so glad!" Jen grabbed the bars and peered into the gloom.

Kit leaned down. "Jen, how nice to see you." His face split into a soft grin as he laid his hand across hers. Our hero leaned her head onto the bar and closed her eyes. Everything was going to be alright, there was no way she could loose now.

---

Kit reached through the bars and gently touched Jen's face. He'd never admit it aloud, but he had been severely worried about his half human counterpart. If anything had happened to her…he didn't know what he, not to mention the whole world, would have done. "Are you alright?"

Jen pressed her head into his hand and nodded. "Ya I'm fine. Just spooked myself is all."

Kit nodded and, unwillingly, took his hand back.

Jen took a deep breath, she had work to do. "I need to get you out of there. Now…how do I do that?"

"I'll help you with that." Kit assured from his side. He shifted his weight and stuck his hand out though the bars again. "See that door over there?"

Jen nodded.

"Behind that door is another room, and inside that room there's a sea-foam green cupboard on your left hand side. Inside that cupboard is large key ring, the key to our cell should be on it." Kit paused for a moment. "I think there might be a guard inside."

"A seafoam green cupboard with keys inside, got it." Jen repeated and turned to leave.

Kit reached out and grabbed her arm. "Jen…" He whispered, verdant eyes searching her face.

Jennifer looked over her shoulder. The only things she could make out in the gloom were Kits glowing eyes and the slender yet well built arm that slipped out between the bars. A small smile spilled across her features.

"I'll be careful." She assured.

Kit released her arm. "I know."

---

The wooden door was rough against the hands she had pressed against it. _Alright,_ Jen thought as she analyzed her situation. _ All I've got to do is slip past the guard, grab the keys, and let them out. Not too hard. _Jen pressed her slight form closer to the door and listened.

Now, Our hero didn't really expect to hear anything. The door had to be at least six inches thick and she lacked a glass or something to pick up sound. But maybe, just maybe she would hear something.

Jen breathed out once and closed her eyes, dedicating every ounce of her willpower to listening. At first she was afraid that the only thing she would hear was the loud, rhythmic beating of her own heart. That was until her heart beat began to slip out of sync with itself.

Jen's eyebrows furrowed. What the heck was that? How could her heart beat like that? Unless…"That's not me." She muttered quietly and opened her eyes. Our hero placed her hand on the door knob and slowly twisted it. The knob rotated easily and opened enough for her to peer through.

Bright light flowed through the crack, blinding our hero for a brief moment. Her vision slowly came back, revealing a rather awkward situation.

Diagonally across from her, propped up on a hardwood desk, were the muddy shoes of none other than Blade; the cinnamon colored jerk who had captured her earlier. Quickly her eyes searched the room—There! His blue mutt lay curled down on the floor.

"K-Kit!" Jin hissed. "KIT!"

"What?" He whispered back, sensing her need for quiet.

"Its them!"

"Them who?"

"The nutters who caught us the first time!"

A snort (most likely from Hiei) erupted behind them. Someone shushed him.

"What are they doing?" Kit demanded.

Jen leaned closer. The blue dogs side rose and fell rhythmically. Conclusion, she was sleeping. Her eyes darted to the wolf. She couldn't see his face or torso, his stupid shoes where in the way. Jen could only hope that he was sleeping too.

"I think they're sleeping."

"Well that's good—I guess. If you want to get us out, you must sneak around them."

Jen grimaced. It sounded so simple. But sounding and doing were two very different things. "If I was Hiei then **maybe**." She grumbled. "Okay, here I go."

Our hero took a few deep breaths to steady herself before she again checked on them. Neither of them had moved, and Io was still breathing deeply. There was a thirty percent chance that she would make it out of there without any difficulties.

"Inari, if you want to win, don't let them wake up!" Jen prayed quietly then slipped into the room.

---

Jen opened the heavy slab of roughly stained wood slowly, expecting it to creek like some horror movie. But, surprisingly, the door not only lacked the good squeak that one would expect to hear; it never made a sound as it pivoted on its hinges. Brownie point for who ever oiled the doors. Carefully, as to not wake the two sleepers, Jen entered the room. So far so good. Nobody woke up, nobody got caught. Once totally inside, Jen noticed that she was standing a few paces from the middle of the room, which was about the size of a large bathroom.

This enclosed and windowless space was lit by one harsh, white-lighted, sixty watt, overhanging bulb. The light cast dark contrasting shadows into the sparse hard wooded furniture, the people, and—behind them—the cupboard, which was suspended on the wall like a giant seafoam-green beetle.

Our hero silently cursed her luck. It figured that what she needed just **had** to be _behind_ the two jerks who caught her before. But, there had to be a way to get there. Silently Jen switched her perspective by moving to her left in a grapevine like pattern, one foot crossing behind the other.

She sweat dropped, this angle wasn't any better.

The way the two occupants were laying, they made access to the box available through only one path, and that trail had the trespasser stepping over their tangled bodies.

Jen gulped quietly and stepped as close to the body of Io as she dared, preparing to embark on that said trail towards the keys. She could do this, she could do this. Our hero took deep breath. She _could_ do this. Jen carefully placed her hand on a small empty space on the desk, steadying herself as she lifted her left leg and carefully lowered it over the trunk of the cotton-candy blue Io. She straddled the dog for a moment. Holding still as she nervously listened to make sure that there was no change in the two hunters breathing. There wasn't.

Again Jen slowly lifted up her other leg and moved it across the dog's trunk so that it could come to rest beside her left foot. Jen let out a claming breath before she ducked under Blades elevated elbows to get to the cupboard beyond.

From her crouched position, Jen was able to reach up and feel along the edges until she found the clasp that would release the cupboard door. Jen narrowed her eyes and explored the lock with her hands. It felt like a simple latch, the kind that would lock a window shut. Our hero cast one final glance towards the two bounty hunters. They hadn't moved.

Feeling safe, she decided to flip the clasp. Jen braced herself for the words as she firmly detached the lock. The cupboard opened with a muted click, cleanly sliding open. Nothing happened, in fact everything stayed deathly still.

_This is way too easy…_Jen thought nervously as she raised her hand, fumbled around inside the cupboard and retrieved the item.

The fox took a moment to look the key over. It was nothing special, just a silver key—like a house key, placed on an iron ring. Jen sweatdropped, She had been expecting an old gothic like skeleton key, not this dinky little thing. Oh well.

Quickly she shut the cupboard, locked it and picked her way back through the tangle of bodies, and out.


	9. Chapter 10

I really want to thank you all for you patience and understanding. I was so grateful for all the e-mails that I got sent. Please enjoy the ninth chapter of _YuYu Hakusho is just a story. _

**Chapter nine: The Magician **

The door closed behind Jen with a low, yet firm click. Fearing the worst, our hero took a foolish moment to pause and listen for the hurried scrapping of chairs and feet. But, as when she was thieving, there was nothing.

Our hero let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Now all that remained was the release of her teammates.

"Jen," Kit hissed from his cell. "are you well?"

Jen nodded her head quickly, then realizing he couldn't see it, voiced her affirmative. "Ya…I'm okay."

"Excellent!" The redheaded fox beamed.

Jen could practically hear the smile in his voice. A rush of satisfaction swept through her as she pushed herself away from the door and jogged the 10 feet to the cage. Once there she shoved the key into the lock and twisted.

A loud click shattered the quiet that seemed to surround the four, making Jen wince and the door slowly slide open. Our hero jogged in quickly and shut the door behind her.

---

Kit smiled and leaned back against the wall as she entered the cell. She spotted him and gave an excited grin.

"KIT!" She exclaimed happily and launched at him arms open.

Kit had just enough time to switch the position of his limbs before an ecstatic Jen wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest.

"Kit, I'm so glad I found you! I was so scared…" her voice trailed off, thick with emotion.

"Scared, of what?" He asked, relaxing into her welcomed embrace.

Jen lifted her head so she could look him in the eyes. "I…when they took you away I thought they'd kill you."

_So did I,_ he thought silently before saying. "Lets not dwell on that, we have work to do." He squeezed her tightly for a moment before turning her around. "Hiei, Kuwabara, I would like you to meet Jennifer. "

The girl blushed as he introduced her.

Kuwabara, who had been surprisingly quiet throughout the theft and greeting, broke into a grin and extended a hand.

"Hi I'm Kuwabara, Kazuma worst punk at Sarayashiki Jr. High. You can call me Kazuma."

Jen stuck out her hand slowly. "H-Hi, Jen Fisher."

The teen took the offered appendage and, as he gave it a firm shake, continued to speak. "Over there's Hiei, he doesn't speak much and he's mean."

Jen blinked. "…right."

A thick snort of impatience erupted from the darkest corner of the room, followed momentarily by the dark Jagonshi himself.

Jen nearly gasped. Hiei was covered from top to bottom in blood, bruises and scratches. "M-my god…" She breathed quietly. Her gaze turned to kit. He sported a swollen eye along with blackened ribs. "What happened?"

"Mearly Skilt's hospitality." Kit answered quickly. "Now, we have another task for you." With a gallant wave of his hand, he ushered the stunned girl across the room. "Look up. Do you see those paper strips that line the ceiling?"

"Ya." Jen said, voice soft.

"Those keep us from accessing our spirit energy ."

"Alright, what do I do?" Jen asked.

"I'll lift you up and then you can climb along the beams that line the ceiling to disable those talismans."

"Beams? What be—oh, Kit, you have got to be kidding me." Jen groaned.

Our hero's heart sank when she saw the "beams" kit was talking about. They were more like thick cylindrical poles packed closely together to discourage climbing.

"I kid you not." Kit affirmed. "It will be a tight fit, but your small enough find purchase there. If you go carefully, you'll be able to reach any talisman."

Jen moaned and slapped her forehead.

The kitsune turned. "Kuwabara, give me you're pants."

"Say what!" The teen protested.

"Give me you're pants." Kit repeated calmly.

"What do you need 'em for." The gruff teen demanded and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"They are not for me." Kit chuckled and crossed his pale, muscular arms across his abdomen. "There for Jen." Kuwabara gave him a look that clearly read 'ya-so?' Kit tried again. "She's wearing a dress."

Something clicked behind Kuwabara's eyes as he got an indication of what kit was talking about. "Like I'd peek!" Kuwabara shouted, defending his honor. "Why don't you donate your own pants?"

Kit laughed. "I would have surrendered my own clothing, but demons don't wear underwear. Human teenagers do. Besides, Jennifer might have to hang herself upside down to reach some of those slips, I doubt Inari gave her undergarments."

Jens face turned three shades of pink. _"KIT!" _ She hissed.

Kuwabara closed his eyes and grumbled softy.

"I don't need his pants!" Jen protested to Kit. " Besides, if I'm gonna hang from my knees, wouldn't it be safer to—"

Suddenly, a pair of pants were thrust between the two Kitsune. "Here take 'em."

"Thank you." Kit beamed.

Jen took the infamous-blue-school-pants from Kuwabara, too dumbfounded to do anything else. The light blue material was soft in her hands, proving itself to be well loved. Jen carefully extended her arms up and let the garment hang. It was still warm.

"The size issue may be a problem, but with a belt I'm sure they will fit alright." Kit mused and approached Jen to help her with the pants.

"—I can't wear Kuwabara's pants! He's a boy!" Jen gave her last desperate plea.

"Would you rather—what is the phrase—Moon him?" Kit asked.

Jen growled, defeated by modesty.

"Now, put them on so I can fix them for you."

With a sigh, Jennifer put on the pants and tried not to blush too hard. Meanwhile, Kuwabara turned his back and sulkily sank down to sit criss-cross-applesauce on the ground. Hiei watched the event with moody scarlet eyes.

As Jen fumbled with the material, Kit stepped behind her and grabbed the waist. With a quick tug he pulled the material as high as it would go. The black haired half-breed blushed again and looked to the side as the waist was pulled tight beneath her breasts.

"Alright." Kit muttered and removed the belt that encircled his own waist. Carefully he wound the long cloth around the girl and tied it tight in back with a bow. "How does that feel?"

Jen gave him an unhappy face. Kit laughed and asked. "Where is your tail?"

"Down the left pant leg." Jen answered. "Why?"

A tearing sound was heard, followed by kit fishing the emotionally distraught girl's tail through a new hole conveniently placed in the seat of Kuwabara's pants.

"MY PANTS!" Kuwabara bellowed, jumping to his feet and turning swiftly to the fox demon. "Wha'ya do that for?"

"Balance." Kit stated simply and bent down to check the hems on the bottom. "Besides, It'll be easy enough to fix. I tore on the seam." The fox took a moment to admire his handy work. "There, that should do it." He smirked. "Well, lets get you up there."

---

Kurama bowed lower as he relayed his encounter with Jen to Skilt. A few paces away, Skilt sat silently on his throne; drinking in every word that the fox uttered.

"Finally," Kurama concluded. "She told me that she would get me out; or I'd figure out how to do it myself. 'After all', as she informed me, 'I am Kurama."

Skilt's leather encased hand balled into a fist. "She lied." He hissed. "That damn kitsune bitch **LIED** to me!" Skilt brought his hand up to caress his creased eyebrows. "Well, that **is **to be expected. I would have been a fool not to believe she wouldn't turn on me." He continued, muttering more to himself then to anyone else. "I had hoped that she would have honored her bargain with me but…" The prince pushed down his dark sunglasses, revealing irises so dark that they seemed to suck all available light into their depths, hungrily devouring the purity. "…as they say, Kurama; We'll fix her little red wagon. Where did you say she was?"

Kurama lowered his eyes and took a breath before answering. Trying to stall as long as he was able. "She's in the dungeon, along with the other prisoners."

"How fitting, a pile of rats in the dungeon." He spat. The prince took a deep cleansing breath and lowered his sunglasses.

The kneeling redhead had a front row seat as the Vash wanna-be lifted his fingers to his temples . A look of concentration passed over the vampire's face and his power slowly began to rise. Orange whips of hair slowly began to flutter in a breeze that touched nothing else. Power filled the chamber with the force of a rising storm, making one wish they could pop their ears. The chi built in the room until it felt as the air was saturated and suffocating. When it became almost unbearable, the tension broke. With this release, Skilt's hells dark eyes shifted to snowy white. Every ounce of color drained; making the dark prince seem blind. Slowly Skilt's eyes moved, scanning the floor as if it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. His face creased into a scowl and he tore his hands down.

"Crafty little she devil!" The prince snarled as his eyes shifted back to their original color. "It seems she was able to get inside the cell. Heh, stole the key from right under that bounty hunter's nose. Damn, I haven't been as careful of her as I should have been." Skilt took off his gold circlet and ran the piece through his fingers as he thought. It seemed pretty obvious to him now that he had given her too much freedom. He had been hopping that she would have just surrendered to him. After all, she was nothing more than a scared human brat, then again, perhaps she hadn't been scared enough!

His attention shifted back to the kneeling redhead. "I want her brought to me as soon as possible. I need to change my plan; she's not cooperating."

Kurama pressed his torso flat against the cool, cool black marble that made up the audience chamber's floor.

"I'll be in my playroom. Oh, and bring Yusuke with you when you come." Skilt ordered.

Orders given, Kurama picked himself up and backed out of the room, head bowed in respect. Once out of the room he turned down a dark corridor to inform Jezebel, Lady of the dungeon, that Jen was to be taken to Skilt's Playroom.

---

Now, so far in our hero's story, we've found her in some pretty sad situations. But, none could compare to what she was going through now.

At this very moment, Jen found herself twenty feet off the ground clinging to a bar with both knees and one hand; and, to her alarm, that one hand was beginning to sweat rather badly. Making her already feeble grip become even worse.

With a squeak, Jen tore her hand away from the talisman she was about to rip off the wall and slammed it back onto the metal pole. She gulped audibly and took a moment to calm her fear. Below, Kit positioned himself more squarely underneath her.

"Okay." Jen breathed. Carefully she adjusted her legs so that she held the bar with her thighs a little more firmly. The dark haired girl then released the bar and wiped her hands on her dress. Once satisfied that her hands were now dry enough to hold onto the bar without slipping, she replaced her grip and leaned out towards the talisman once again.

"Be careful." Floated Kit's warning from below.

The silvery white fox watched with bated breath as the young woman positioned herself among poles. Carefully she reached out and grasped the corner edge of the slip. With a gentle flick of her wrist, she began to tug the paper off the wall.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Kuwabara bellowed and grabbed his head. Blood spurted from his nose. His hands shifted to his bleeding appendage, unsure of how he was bleeding. His scream dulled to piteous moans.

Above him Jen held tightly onto the talisman that she had only meant to tug. There was a rush of commotion below her as Kit rushed over to the bleeding teen and inspected him.

"Kuwabara! Are you alright?" Kit demanded and knelt down to the teen.

Kuwabara brought up a hand and waved the concerned fox away. "Ya, ya. I'm fine. Just…" He spat onto the ground. "…Just peachy. What the hell happened?"

"I guess Jen can't remove them that way." Kit deduced aloud.

"Ch. You can say that again." Kuwabara grumbled painfully.

"A-are you alright, Kuwabara?" Jen asked gingerly.

"Ya. I'm fine, surprised me is all." He informed. "Heh…just do me a favor an' don't do that again. Okay?"

"Sure." Jen cast one last look at Kuwabara before placing the paper in her mouth and shifting her weight so that she swung back up onto the pole and could sit correctly. Jen took the slip out of her mouth and inspected it. The charm was about as long as her forearm and decorated in beautiful, long stroked kanji. Behind the symbols, about ½ inch from the top, were two long, thinly drawn ovals that stretched the entire length of the paper. Inside the inner oval was a lone flower that seemed to float directly in the middle, its petals delicately touching the sides of the inner oval. Her eyes flicked to the right side of the paper slip. Written in small kanji were letters that she thought she knew. On the left side, was a different set of kanji, but again they were familiar.

Jen looked up. Above her was the same type of charm, only this one had different lettering on the side. Kanji she knew instantly, because she had taught herself them as soon as she found out what they meant; and they spelled out the word _Kurama._

"Kurama?" She whispered. Her eyes were drawn a little further away, to a different talisman. There, in the same corner as Kurama's name sat another set of Kanji. Again, these were ones she could pick out on sight. "Hiei." She breathed.

Her gaze shifted to Kuwabara, who at the moment was being nursed by Kit. She studied him for a moment, then her eyes turned back to the talisman in her hand. This one had to mean Kuwabara. And, judging by the way he had suffered when the talisman came off the wall, the only person who would sustain damage from having a talisman removed from the ceiling was the one who had his name scrawled onto the paper. But, there were so many talismans. If each person was affected the same way Kuwabara was—meaning they all suffered the same amount of blood loss and injury to the face as he had—she would probably kill them. Not to mention that the talismans probably didn't all affect the face. Many of them could be connected to say…the brain or heart. A blood burst like that would surly kill what ever internal organ they happened to spurt on. So, she couldn't remove them like that. There had to be another way; the only problem was that she didn't know what it was.

"You'll be alright." Kit said quietly to Kuwabara as he wiped a handkerchief out of one of his pockets and pressed it under the boys nose. "It looks like its already stopping. "

Kuwabara took the cloth away and nursed himself.

"Kit."

At the sound of his name, the silver fox turned and looked back up at Jen. The black kitsune was again hanging by her knees so that she could look down into his face. "If I cant take these down without hurting you guys, what am I supposed to do?"

"You are a magic kitsune, meaning that those talismans fall under your expertise. You should be able to remove them." Kit brought a hand up to stroke the underside of his chin. "Perhaps you could use your youki to find out how to remove them." He offered.

"Great!" Jen beamed. "How do I do that?"

Kit closed his eyes as his ears flattened back against his head in disappointment. He had forgotten that he was supposed to have taught her how to use her youki on the way over. Of course, if things had gone according to plan, they would probably have gotten here two days later.

"You have no idea how to use your youki?" A dark and sarcastic voice spat.

"No." Kit informed with a sigh. "She has the basics, but she didn't have enough time to learn the skills needed to master them."

Hiei cursed thickly. "What does she know?"

"She drew a weapon once. But that was when Inari's power was running through her; thus making the art of manipulating energy extremely easy. Now that she's here, Inari's power has faded away and she must access her energy on her own."

Hiei growled and leaned back against the wall.

Jen's ears settled down on her head as the darkest member of team Urameshi grew irritated at her incompetence.

Kit turned his attention to Jen. "Jen, how much do you know about youki?"

Jen screwed up her face in thought. "Well…" she began. "The show doesn't really tell much about it. But in fan fiction, they say that youki is the demon equivalent of Reiki."

Kit nodded. "That is correct. Do you know how to summon it?"

"Never tried."

Kit nodded his head in thought. "Well, I suppose that now would be as good a time as any to instruct you."

---

It didn't take as long as anyone suspected to teach Jen how to manipulate her youki. It seemed that the first time she had drawn her weapon, had given her enough of an idea on how to call her power. One hour of Hiei's silent observations, Kit's general instruction and Kuwabara's attempt at teaching, Jen had enough know-how to try and read a talisman with her magic.

"Now, lets try what we've been talking about on a talisman!" Kit called.

Jen placed the talisman she had been holding for the past hour onto the pole in front of her.

"Now, as we've practiced earlier, I want you to inject you're ki into it, and tell me what the talisman 'says'."

Jen nodded and moved her hand so that it hovered over the paper strip. As per their instructions, Jen searched deep inside herself for that one place where she was forever calm. A spot, about where her heart was, that was different from everywhere else. A place that she knew that was hers and hers alone.

With her mind she grasped a piece of that gentle calmness and pushed it down her right arm. She could feel it slowly working its way down, a warm reluctant piece of orange light that was unaccustomed to moving. When the feeling had reached her fingertips, Jen shoved out with her mind. Mentally seeing the orange glow enter the paper slip. She was vaguely aware of somebody saying 'its working', or 'good job'. But she wasn't sure and didn't care. All her attention was focused on the paper strip. Hoping it would 'talk' to her.

The paper didn't so much as talk to her as reveal its secrets. It was as If forcing her youki into the strip had triggered some instant recollection. Jen felt as if she had always known how to destroy these binding scrolls, but she knew that she had never possessed this knowledge before. The urge to test this new enlightenment was so powerful that Jen had found herself again calling upon her energy before she had even realized that she was doing so. That warm, amber orange light again made its way down her arm, accompanied by a word.

Our hero's arm slowly pulled back away from the scroll, as she moved Jen forced her hand to flex as straight as the muscles would allow. Once her arm was pulled back as far enough away Jen let that word bubble from her lips in the form of a command.

"Release!" She commanded, as she uttered this word her arm shot forward and buried itself elbow deep inside the paper scroll. The surface of the binding talisman rippled like water. Instantly, the kanji that decorated the slip began to glow, soft cream at first—then a blinding white as Jen forced her ki to tear the spell binding her teammates apart. Something clicked behind her eyes and the kanji burned away in a flash of white. Immediately Jen forced her arm free of the talisman, ignoring the sucking sensation that tried to grab hold of her arm and pull her the rest of the way inside the ruined strip. With a grunt of triumph Jen's hand pulled free of the paper. Leaving nothing but a harmless scrap of blank scroll.

"EXCELLENT WORK!" Kit congratulated from below her. "Now, it shouldn't be too hard for you to get the rest!"

"No prob!" Jen called back. They had a plan! Finally, for once things were going right!


	10. Chapter 11

Hello again, Banshee here. I'm here to apologize for my lateness.

dodges things thrown at her

I know that I'm getting really, really bad with this. I'm hoping you will forgive me.

Gets hit in the head with an apple core

But…

Rubs head

…This time I have a really good excuse. My mom allowed me to go to Europe this summer for my graduation present. I wasn't allowed to tell because she didn't want me to get picked up by some psycho or something else while I was away. For those of you who don't want to here any more, you may skip down to the chapter, (accepting my thanks and most sincerest and dearest apologies or not) For those of you who do, I'll give you a short and sweet spiel.

I went to Germany, France and Spain. It was very hot toping 40 degrees C. That's about 105 degrees. We saw churches and castles and we went up the Eitful (sp?) tower. I rode on the first highway that was ever constructed while crazy German drivers passed us going at least 110 mph. In Germany the country side is no different from the climate in The Oregon/ Washington state area, mostly gray skies and shrubbery. In France the dirt seems to change colors as you go from a light almost white tan to a dark red. The area over there is like Eastern Washington, dry with almost desert like plants. Spain is dark red dirt which is extremely tough looking. The plants are the same. We saw lots of museums and stuff like that (which was the best part). Finally, we swam in the Mediterranean which was so blue you wouldn't not believe it. It was also so salty I couldn't believe it. For those of you who have never tasted it, try taking a glass of water, poring in about two table spoons of salt and then take a sip of it. Leave the water a smidgen colder then room temperature and that is what the Mediterranean tastes like. I am not kidding. Also the water was cold, even though we could look out across it and see Africa. You'd think it would be warmer, but heh, go figure.

Oh, one final tidbit for the inquiring mind. If you are squeamish about woman anatomy, don't go to the beeches. Ladies of all ages, yes, I mean ALL ages enjoy spending a warm summer day on the beach tanning their chests without the annoying swimsuit lines. In other words, they take off the tops and (I have seen this) the bottoms too while they are at it. Also, males enjoy waltzing around in gasp! Speedo's! And it's not the hunky 20 somethin's either. Its usually somebody as old as your father/grandfather.

(P.S. I have nothing against old people, I really like some old people.—That sounds stupid right there, heh maybe I should write something different…Oh well, what the heck. XD)

Well now that I may have scarred your mind. Enjoy my late Gets hit in the head with an overripe tomato story…--!

**Chapter 10: The Emperor in Reverse**

Sweat pored down Jen's face and moistened her long black hair as she reached for the next scroll. "R-Release!" She rasped for the umpteenth time that day—or was it night? Who knew?

Before her the script on the scroll disintegrated in a puff of white light. Immediately the vacuum like sensation of the scroll pulled at her arm, trying to pull her inside. With a grunt Jen braced her free arm on the ceiling and pulled against the suction. Her right arm shook with the exertion of pulling itself out of yet another scroll. Slowly her arm pulled free of the liquid like mass of paper that tried to stay adhered to her arm. With a final burst of power, Jen shoved away from the wall and collapsed against one of the many metal beams that lined the ceiling.

The scroll, which she had just annihilated, stayed attached to the ceiling for a second longer before it popped off the wall and floated gently down to land by its brothers and sisters on the floor.

Our hero's eyes slid shut as she contemplated the slight tingling sensation on her right arm. With a little effort, she managed to bring the abused appendage into her lap. Jen cracked an eye open and looked down at her shaking arm. It didn't look hurt at all, maybe a little on the pale side, but other then that…

"Jen, why don't you come down and take a break." Kit said, though his tone of voice made the suggestion more of a command.

A break? Oh ya, that sounded good. But, Jen still had so much left to do. The black haired vixen's gaze turned to the ceiling; there along the cobwebs and uneven stones sat a nest of binding scrolls. It was as if an artist had dipped their brush in white paint and flicked the wet liquid across a sheet of textured paper many, many times; creating a masterpiece of white rectangle blotches.

With her left hand Jen reached up and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "I'm alright Kit."

"Yes but—"

"—We need to get these down." Jen argued. "I have no idea how much time I have left before Skilt comes lookin' for me. If we don't have these down by the time he gets here…"

Kit sighed loudly. "Yes, I know."

Jen lay still for a second longer before gathering herself together and heading onto the next scroll.

---

Chssss….Chsss…chsss

Skilt held up the blade that he had been polishing up to the light. The black steel of the blade reflected beautifully. With the smallest turn of the wrist he could see the thick hand carved blood oak doors behind him and the small servant girl that stood to one side of them. The girl stood silently dressed in the thin silky Chinese style kimono that every female messenger of Enma-dou wore. She had entered his playroom three minuets ago and was waiting silently, demure lavender eyes fixed on the floor.

"Yes?" Skilt asked, voice purring.

The girl, having finally been noticed, moved before him in quick yet flowing strides. Once before him she bowed low, making the bells on either side of her head jingle pleasantly. With a wave of her hand a slightly glowing orb appeared and hovered in mid air.

"The great Emperor of Spirit world, king of the dead and lord of the fates, wishes to have an audience with the noble Prince of Hell and future ruler of the human realm." The woman announced, her voice surprisingly quiet.

"Very well." Skilt drawled.

The woman bowed once again then straightened. With a manicured hand, the lovely female lightly grasped the glowing orb out of the air and smashed it between her palms. Light and wind pored from the orb and flung the messenger's mint green hair around. Quickly she reached into her robes and withdrew a scepter. With the care of a mother, the woman coaxed the writhing mass of light and wind onto the scepter.

Skilt watched silently as she allowed the scepter and orb to calm, then float on its own. It was from the glowing orb of wind and light that the voice of Enma would be projected.

"This one is pleased to introduce the Emperor of Reiki, ruler above all that which is divine and sacred in all of the three worlds, and commander of all fates. Enma-dou." The woman turned away from the scepter and exited the room.

Skilt sat up straight and ran a hand through his hair. "Enma, to what do I owe this great honor?" He drawled.

"It is with ill tidings that I come to you this day." Enma announced, monotone voice betraying no feeling.

"Oh?" Skilt asked and tilted his orange head to the side. "What could possibly make the great Enma contact me?"

"It seems, prince, that another god has become jealous of our endeavors and sends a spy into your midst." The god announced. "Inari is making his move."

Skilt pushed his dark sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. "Isn't there anything you can do to stop this Inari yourself?"

"Skilt, I have told you this many times before. As gods we cannot fight against one another in the open. To do so would be a violation against the laws that bind reality." Enma drawled.

"But, you need not strike in the open." Skilt voiced cryptically.

"The answer is no. I will not risk the very bonds of physical existence for a simple take over, Skilt!" Enma thundered.

"As you wish." Skilt conceded. "So, what would you have me do with this spy?"

"Kill her." Enma said flatly.

"You said the same thing about the Reiki Tantai. Yet, here they are completely under my control. I believe that I can handle one little spy sent by Inari."

"When I ordered Koenma to send in the Reiki Tantai, I had Koenma send them in unprepared. This spy will not be so easily caught. She knows too much." Enma said. "If she succeeds…we will be finished."

"Ah, still not telling your son what's going on?" Skilt asked.

Enma chuckled. "As far as he knows, the boys cannot make contact due to technical difficulties. "

Skilt nodded. "But, won't he become worried and send in a second wave? Someone who will try to locate his team?"

Enma chuckled darkly. "Koenma does not have the authority to send another team to rescue the first. Without my say, he can do nothing."

"But, what about his ferry girls? Can't he send those in?" Skilt demanded.

"The oar department is lacking ferry girls as it is, Koenma can't spare anyone or anything for his own personal gain. Do not worry about my end, Skilt. Worry about your own."

That said the orb of light and the scepter fizzled out of perspective and disappeared, leaving the prince to once again polish his knives and wait for his new toys to bring him the black kitsune.

---

"R-release!" Jen ordered. Her newest scroll bubbled angrily and sucked greedily at her arm, defying her command. "C'mon." Jen mumbled, urging her reluctant arm out. Slowly her limb began to move backwards, pulling itself out of the sticky mass of paper and suction. With a final tug the arm came loose with an audible pop. Sweat pored down her face as Jen allowed herself to relax. This was becoming more difficult with each scroll she encountered. Soon, she wasn't even sure if she would be able to pull herself out.

With a groan Jen lowered herself down against the polls. What would happen if she couldn't pull her arm out anymore? Could she really be pulled into the scroll? She just didn't know. Her gaze wondered back to the talismans, 5 were clustered there, 3 in the corner, and 1,2,3,4…6 in the back space over there. That made 14 in all. Not bad, but then again not good either. 14 scrolls left out of roughly 100 put up. So close, she had to do it. She could take care of 14 little scrolls left, she hoped.

"Jen." Kits voice floated up to her again. For the past ten scrolls he had been trying to urge her down.

Our hero closed her eyes. She knew she should listen to the fox, he knew so much more about these things then she did. But, if she stopped, she wasn't sure she could start again—even with a break. So, Jen pretended that she didn't or couldn't hear him. If she didn't respond he wouldn't push her, a little trick she had picked up about three scrolls ago.

Kit sighed and lowered his ears. It wasn't good for anyone, human or demon, to expend their energy the way Jen was doing now. That type of recklessness could kill the weak or untrained. Hence why he kept asking and worrying. But, Jen was neither weak nor stupid. He was sure that if she felt too exhausted she would stop and ask for help. At least, he hoped she would.

With a sigh Kit sat down and looked up to the ceiling. Above, Jen was up again and moving towards the next paper strip. She looked so tired, but she kept going. Kit looked away and pretend not to notice. Hoping he was doing the right thing.

Meanwhile, Jen pulled her hand back and plunged it deeply into the scroll. As before, the surface rippled and the suction began. "Release." Jen commanded as she pulled her arm back. Inch by inch her arm retreated, until she got to her wrist.

Jen blinked in confusion and gave her arm a forceful tug; but her hand would go no further. Jen licked her lips, her fist was still stuck fast inside the scroll, which was rippling at an alarming rate—almost as if the paper were coming to a boil.

Our hero began to panic, it was as if the paper had become solid again.

Suddenly, the scroll began to glow red and the surface bubbled and popped as if it were water coming to a boil. Jen took a deep breath, ready to call for help. But she didn't get the chance. White hot pain shot up from her fingertips, forcing Kits name from her lips and replaced it with a scream, high and pain filled.

---

Kit leapt to his feet as Jen screamed. His eyes found her in the same spot, near the back of the ceiling. She was struggling against a scroll that held her hand in a hellish, boiling red embrace. To his horror, the girl gave another ear-shattering screech as her arm began to sink in elbow deep.

The red haired fox's stomach dropped to his feet. "Jen!"

The girl bit her lip and braced herself against the wall with her free hand. A low moan escaped her as her arm sank in another two inches.

Kit moved over towards the girl as worry wormed its way across his ethereal features. Above, all of the scrolls that were left began to hum in an angry minor cord.

"Jen, what are you doing?" Kuwabara bellowed as his bonds began to glow the same hellish red as the scrolls.

Kits attention was nabbed from the struggling female as his own bonds began to glow. What in the seven hells was going on?

In his dark corner, now illuminated red. Hiei cursed.

A fresh peal of half shushed shrikes from Jen turned our worried fox's attention back to his charge. "Hold o—" The thought died in Kits throat as his bonds began to react to the power now building in the room, forcing him to his knees.

Kuwabara grunted and groaned as he too was affected in the same manor. "JEN KNOCK IT OFF!"

Jen panted against the wall. She wasn't doing it! It was the scroll. She gritted her teeth as another wave of pain assaulted her. Gods, she had to pull her arm out or else she was gonna…

Another wave of pain knocked her thought pattern off, ending everything else but the sensation. Jen's reality was sucked viciously sideways as the scroll pulled greedily at her arm.

Kits green eyes widened in terror as Jen's arm sank deeper into the scroll. Soon, he was sure that the girl would be pulled into the paper the way a child would slurp spaghetti. But, to his relief, she wasn't giving in without a fight.

The red haired demon licked his lips, what should he do? Kit closed his eyes to try and think. There had to be something he could do…

"Shut up." A dark and sadistic voice commanded.

Kit looked over at the speaker. The Jagonshi was watching the girl with a stoic expression.

The command was so random and unexpected that it took the pain numbed girl a few moments to register that the dark demon had even addressed her.

Jen took a deep breath and looked down, Hiei was talking to her. The demon narrowed his eyes.

"Your worthless." He spat. "Hurry up and die already."

Confusion crossed over Jen's face. Her mind echoing Hiei's statements. _your worthless…shut up….die…_Another wave of pain shot up her arm as if to confirm Hiei's remarks. She was worthless. _But…_her pain shocked brain argued…_I did my best…_

Kit turned towards Hiei stunned. What was he trying to do?

"Don't tell her that!" Kuwabara barked from his position on the floor.

"I don't need her anymore. I've enough energy to get myself out." Hiei growled at the carrot toped teen. "Now shut up, baka."

Kuwabara growled loudly. "Just keep talkin' shorty, one of these days!"

Hiei smirked. "One of these days what?" He challenged.

"That's enough out of the both of you!" Kit snapped loudly, he so did not need to baby-sit these two right now!

Jen moaned as her arm sank in shoulder deep. But it wasn't the pain that made her groan, it was what Hiei had said. Worthless; that pretty much summed her up. So far she had passed out, thrown up, and generally made a mess of things. Yup. worthless pretty much covered it.

Anger welded up inside her. Why? Why did she always mess things up? This was just like home. She always screwed up when things needed to be done right. She always made stupid mistakes. Gods, she was so stupid!

"I'VE HAD IT!"

Kit stopped arguing with the others as Jen's voice reverberated around the cell.

"GET THE HELL OFF OF ME! I WANNA GO HOME!" Tears welded up in Jen's eyes, and with a growl, she roughly wiped them away. _A lot of good they'd do!_

_I'm so tired…_ Jen thought as she forcibly reached into her energy supply, _So tired of always messing up. I'm not gonna do it any more. _Her store was low, but she didn't care. All she wanted to do was finish this and be done.

_I won't keep messing up!_

Gut wrenching agony spilled down her arm as she forced the last of her ki down her arm and into the scroll. Her aura sliced and tore away at the binding as if the complex magic holding the thing together was nothing more then butter and herself the hot knife. She was dimly aware as other scrolls began to crack and groan like heated ice.

In retaliation, the scroll sent one last burst of defiance before it began to splinter and crack, following its siblings into destruction in a shower of burnt paper. The power flowed up Jen's arm and into her chest in a wave of skin prickling chi. The shocking sensation of that last attack pushed Jen out and away from the ceiling with the strength of a physical blow.

Jen felt her world tip and spin as gravity took hold and pulled her down towards the stony floor. Jen watched with no emotion as her world turned and gave her a full frontal view of the ground rushing up to meet her. Jen allowed her eyes to slide closed. She had enough. No more. She just wasn't good enough to handle everything.

She was…

after all…

Worthless…

---

The first sensation that told our hero that she wasn't dead was the feeling of something shifting beneath her. The next was a low throbbing ache. In response our hero clenched her teeth together and sucked in a little air. It felt as though her chest was on fire—the kind one usually had when they have been running for too long, or suffering from a hacking cough.

A gentle hand caressed her face and ran fingers through her hair. While a voice gently began to mummer comforts.

Fear welded up in the vixen, where was she and who the hell was touching her!

As if sensing her fear, the hand became gentler and allowed the voice to take over in the comfort department.

Despite the rush of fear, our hero could feel herself relax, which in her book was rather an oxymoron. How in the world could some stranger touching you make you relax? so, thus frightened and confused, Jen opened her eyes.

Everything was fuzzy and block-like in color. But, with a few good blinks, Jen was able to clear her head enough to see who and or what was taking advantage.

The first things that came into focus were a pair of startling green eyes. Eyes that held the weight of intelligence far superior to the eighteen year old face and wash of crimson locks that surrounded them. Jen's eyes focused on the face itself, a face so devoid of emotion that when any trace of feelings decided to show, it was still cautious. Still, oh-so-careful not to be a dead give away. Jen could think of only one person who was that well guarded. "Kurama?" Her voice sounded weak.

"No." The face answered, though there was a hint of smile in the voice. "Not Kurama."

Jen let her eyes slide closed again. Why was she having so much trouble keeping them open?

"Do you know who I am?" The voice was soft and gentle, but even still, there was a hint of deep alto. It was as if there was something else hidden in that sweet voice, a more wilder side. "Try again."

Try again? Who else could it be? Wait…why was she being so stupid. Of course there was someone else. Kit, how could she have overlooked him? What had happened to her? "Kit…what happened?"

The fox sighed loudly in relief. "That's right. I'm here." His hands again caressed her face. "You had an accident. That scroll tried to eat you, I think. It had almost succeed, but you staved it off."

Jen barred her teeth in a feral grimace. She remembered that, but the eating part had been happening to her hand, not her chest—and that is what hurt the most now. Though, now that she thought about it…her arm was suddenly becoming a close second on the what-hurt-worse scale.

"Ugh…It feels like I've been hit by a truck!" Jen grumbled and placed her hands over her face.

Kits smile faded slightly around the edges and he leaned forward slightly, cradling the vixen in his lap. This was the second time in two days that he had failed her. He should have done something, anything to make her come down and take a break. But, he'd done nothing and now she was lying still half conscious and dangerously low on youki in his lap.

Jen looked up as scarlet strands of hair fell about her face like some blood red curtain.

"I'm so sorry, Jennifer." Kits sorrowful voice whispered softly.

"Sorry?" Jen turned his statement into a question. "Sorry for what?"

Kit closed his eyes. "I should have done something."

"It's not your fault, Kit. If anyone's to blame its me. I didn't listen." Jen said.

Kit took a deep breath and turned his head to the side, avoiding her eyes. "Jen, you nearly died."

Jen reached up and gently laid a hand on his cheek, with a little bit of pressure she guided the foxes gaze back to her own. "Well, I didn't die." She said, voice trying to sound helpful.

Kit smiled slightly. "No you didn't die, and I'm grateful. But, that scroll sent a shock-wave up your arm through the open channel left by your escaping youki. That wave disrupted what little energy that you had left and snuffed it out. If Kuwabara hadn't been here to give you some life energy, or if the blast of your youki hadn't been enough to overload the circulation of magic running from scroll to scroll blowing them up, both you and Kuwabara could have died."

"Kuwabara?" Jen asked. She turned her head, through the parts in Kits hair, she could just make out the teen a few feet away breathing deeply. He had been perched against the wall where he seemed to have passed out.

"When you fell, your heart stopped. Thankfully though, Hiei caught you and got you to Kuwabara before any real damage could be done." Kit continued.

Jen closed her eyes. She vaguely remembered falling, probably because her brain decided to keep her only record of this event as a snapshot of the floor from an awkward angle. Oh boy, when she got outta here she owed the fire demon and Kuwabara some cookies, cake, sweet snow, or something else along that sweet and sugary line.

"Wow. I didn't think Hiei would save me." Jen wondered aloud.

"Hn. Do your job right and maybe I wouldn't have to." A dark voice spat.

Jen closed her eyes and bit her lip. Gods, he hated her and as far as she was concerned; she couldn't blame him for it either!

Kit felt the girl tense, Hiei had struck a tender nerve in the girl. "The power of your youki is closely linked to your feelings." He said gently, trying to sooth her hurt feelings. "Hiei was mearly attempting to force an emotional reaction to help you summon a blast large enough to vanquish that scroll. Well, obviously it worked. You not only got enough for that last scroll, you grabbed enough to kick the rest of them out as well."

"So, you're saying that the shrimp was trying to help Jen?" Kuwabara demanded sleepily. He had woken up somewhere during their explanations.

Kit shrugged, not wishing to deny or confirm his views least he end up on the wrong side of a blade or worse.

Kuwabara shot a look at Hiei then closed his eyes. "Hiei? Help someone out? And here I thought he was being his normal self."

"Say that ever again and I'll rip your tongue out." Hiei hissed, voice as hard and sharp as his blade. He was definitely pissed about being accused of helping.

Kuwabara made no comment, he had passed out again.

Kit shook his head and smiled. It seemed everyone was getting along nicely.


	11. Chapter 11:

**Chapter 11: The Ace of swords**

Kurama rounded a corner and came face to face with the woman he had been trying to find.

"Welcome Master Kurama, what brings you to my dungeon?" She asked, voice a smiling sickly sweet.

Kurama forced a smile to curve his lips. "I need you to fetch Jen for me. Alive, I might add."

Jezebel sighed and ran a hand through her long golden locks of hair. "Very well, I shall bring her. But, if she is forceful, or unwilling…do I have the permission to bring her bodily harm?"

Kurama narrowed his eyes. "No broken bones, dislocated joints or missing pieces. She is to be brought to me as whole as you found her."

"Very well, I shall fetch her." That said, the blond woman turned on a soft soled shoe and walked off into the gloom of her domain.

Kurama watched her go, his gold flecked eyes tracking her every movement until she had vanished into the shadows. Once the woman was out of his sight, Kurama turned around and headed off towards another passage to fetch Yusuke.

---

Jen watched the three men talk, her blue eyes jumping from speaker to speaker. For the past fifteen minuets the boys had been discussing what they were going to do once they got out of the dungeon, the idea was, so far, that all four of them would run off into the castle and—according to Kuwabara: Kick some major butt.

Everybody seemed to like that idea, until Hiei had so bluntly put in the topic of how they were going to get out of the cell; that little comment started a whole new flow questions as Kuwabara dove into the new topic.

"What if the chains try to suck our spirit energy when we leave?" Kuwabara asked.

"You baka, it was the **scrolls** that collected the energy, not the chains." Hiei said.

"But what about when Kit used his energy to grow that plant? It wasn't the scrolls that yanked him back down, was it?"

Kit shrugged. "The talismans were what guided the chains, allowing them to move and react to our actions. Without the scrolls, the wards cannot function as a moving device. All they can do now is hold us down."

"Well, if the scrolls are down, why don't the chains come off?" Kuwabara asked.

Hiei hit his forehead with his hand, careful to avoid the large eye in the middle of it. "Would killing him be considered murder or…charity?" He mumbled darkly.

"They are still ordinary chains, Kuwabara." Kit explained, ignoring the fire demon's comment. "Just because the talismans were destroyed doesn't mean that they automatically fall off."

Kuwabara lifted his arm towards his face and studied the lock closely. "Well, how are we gonna get these off then?"

"I'll pick the locks Kuwabara!" Kit exclaimed.

"Well, eexxccuussee me!" The teen grumped and crossed his arms.

Kit closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn't going to help if he got snappy. Even if Kuwabara was not using his brain…he could deal. "I'm sorry I snapped. But, I'll just pick the locks."

"Oh, alright then..." The teen said, accepting the apology. "…but what about—"

"ENOUGH!" Hiei spat. "Save your fool questions, we'll get out and worry about those details later! What we need to worry about now is who is still on **our** side and how long do we have left before Skilt **kills** us all." His eyes sparkled in the darkness, giving the already evil demon an even more depraved appearance.

Kit cast a glance at the brooding fire demon. "Jen and I saw Yusuke, he was with Skilt when we first came in. I doubt that the boy is still on our side." The redhead took a breath. "If we are forced to face him; what are our chances?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes. "I can handle him."

Kit nodded, if Hiei said he could do it he believed him.

"Well, what about Kurama? I mean, Kurama's still on our side—Right?" Kuwabara asked, eyes searching Kit's face.

"I don't know." Kit answered truthfully. "I have not seen him."

"I did." Jen said quietly, finally joining the conversation.

All three fixed their eyes on her.

Jen fidgeted under the weight of their gaze and looked down. "He didn't seem right, he kinda hid from me. But I'm sure if something did happen to him, he's getting out of it." She looked up as she ended her statement, gaining confidence in her words as she said them.

"He hid from you?" Hiei snickered and closed his eyes.

Kit closed his eyes. Two of the members from the Reiki Tantai were against them. This was not going to be easy. "We should view them as enemies." He advised. "I say that after we escape, Hiei goes after Yusuke and Kurama. If they are still allies then we could use their help, if not…" He let his sentence trail off. "Meanwhile, I'm going to take Jen and Kuwabara off to find Skilt. Hiei, if we haven't run into you yet we'll attack and attempt to take him out. I'm sure you'll find us if we don't meet up."

Hiei nodded in agreement.

"WAIT!" Kuwabara shouted, voice angry. "We just can't take Urameshi an' Kurama out! They're on our team, if we find 'em we gotta help 'em! We just can't wax 'em!"

Hiei glared at him. "You oaf, if Kurama and Yusuke aren't our allies anymore then we have more to worry about then **us** hurting **them**. They will **kill** you without even a second thought." Hiei's hand twitched as if the appendage was itching to hold a sword again." You can go ahead and try to sweat-talk them out of murdering your sorry hide. But I, for one, will get them before they get **me**!"

"_Well, well, well,_" A snide voice whispered menacingly, cutting through the conversation. "So, you managed to destroy my binding scrolls? How cute."

All four turned towards the new voice that trickled through the bars on the door.

"What do we have here, hmm?" The owner of the voice purred as she slowly opened the door and sashayed into view.

Kits eyes narrowed, they were in trouble yet again. Joy.

"Well, forbidden one. You seem to have added some new friends to your collection." The newcomer, a young blond wearing a Chinese style dress and shoes said as she positioned herself between them and the door.

Hiei narrowed his eyes. That damn onna was back again and knew that they had been trying to escape! Kuwabara was defiantly going to pay for this. True it wasn't the oaf's fault, but Hiei did _love_ to pin bad situations and any ill fortune on the boy.

"I'm here for the girl…" The woman began. "Oh, and seeing as how you all tried to escape; I guess for your lives as well, But orders first, pleasure later." As she spoke her arm stretched and shot out like a rubber-band.

Jen didn't have time to react as the fleshy appendage wrapped itself about her neck in a bone crushing embrace. The woman hauled her backwards and crushed her to her chest in a mock-love embrace.

"Don't even try anything foxy." The blond murmured sweetly as she nuzzled Jen's cheek with her own. "One wrong move and I'll snap this little chickadee's neck."

Kit lowered his hands away from his hair and watched the female with hateful eyes. "What do you want with her?"

The woman giggled happily as Jen's hands found their way to the coils at her throat and tried to pry them off. "Skilt wants a word with his new pet. I don't think he's very happy with her." She giggled.

Jen choked and pulled outwards on the woman's arms. Gods! She couldn't breathe.

"Your are suffocating her," Kit said calmly. "Does Skilt want you to bring him a dead girl?"

The woman grinned broadly and tightened her grip. "Oh, I won't kill her."

Jen struggled against the arm that was squeezing the life out of her. But it was as if she were trying to pry a vice from her throat. Suddenly an Idea hit her, and she was gonna do it! She needed air!

"AAAYEEEEE! You little bitch!" The woman screeched and grabbed her chest.

Jen pushed away from the woman and fell to her knees coughing loudly. She was barely aware as Kit lunged and scooped her up before the blond could again snatch her away.

"YOU DIDN'T JUST DO THAT!" Kuwabara hollered flabbergasted.

Hiei smiled evilly, now that was something interesting.

The woman growled loudly and took a step towards Jen, arms crossed protectively over her chest.

Kit, who had snatched and yanked Jen away bridle style, held her closer to his chest as she relearned how to breath. The back of his mind wondered why Jen was always getting herself suffocated for a moment before he squished the thought away to ponder at another time.

"HOW DARE YOU, YOU IMPERTINENT LITTLE WHELP!" The blond hissed like a snake.

Jen raised her hand and gave her the finger, she was quickly regaining her composure. "Touch me again and I'll rip it off!"

The blond sputtered and began to shout nasty things at Jen, who quickly retorted with something just as bad. Needless to say, the shouting match was not worth to put down in writing.

Kit backed up until his back hit the wall and he glanced at it momentarily. His back was to the wall both literally and proverbially. Everyone in the room save Jen and the new woman were still bound in the chains. If they had to fight, there was no way they could win. Unless…

Kit shifted his hold so that Jen's ear was pressed against his mouth. "Jen." He breathed.

Jen stiffened and stopped mid-insult as Kit's breath brushed against her ear.

"OH ho!" The woman crowed and closed her eyes, she didn't seem to be aware of Kit whispering a quickly summed up plan into her ear. "No comeback? Well, you little whore. Let's get down to business. Tell your keeper to release you and I can repay you for…" she paused a moment in thought.

"--Honking your jugs?" Kuwabara supplied.

Everybody turned towards Kuwabara.

"What?"

Kit gently lowered Jen to the ground and prayed that she would do as told. Earlier she had been chomping at the bit to hurt Io, she had been refused. Well now she was going to get her chance to hurt someone else. If she challenged this new woman to a battle, or just down right started one. He would have enough time to get them the hell out of here.

Jen allowed herself to be placed on the ground and took a few steps towards the fuming bimbo who was now insulting Kuwabara for his 'lack of sensitivity'. With a gulp, Jen pointed a finger at the woman and began with Kit's plan.

"Hey, Ugly!" She said, hopefully in a challenging kind of way. The blond stopped yelling and turned her narrowed eyes on Jen. Our hero licked her lips and continued. "I challenge you to a battle!"

The woman arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"You heard me! I wanna fight you."

The woman began to laugh, loudly. "You, challenge me? Oh my dear chickadee. That is so old fashioned. Besides, I'm not stupid. You only want to fight me so that your little foxy friend can buy some time to pick those wards." She began to advance on Jen.

Our hero began to back up under the predatory gaze she was sending her way.

"You have no idea who you are dealing with." As the blond spoke, fangs sprouted from her mouth and her eyes turned into feral slits. "I am Jezebel, mistress of all these dungeons and keeper of lost souls. I devour little peeons like you for breakfast every day."

Jen felt her stomach clench as fear began to worm its way down her spine. This woman screamed snake!

Jezebel stuck her tongue out of her mouth for a moment then darted it back in. "Mmmm, you taste of fear, little chickadee. You're not scared? Are you?"

Jen bit her lip. Hell yes! Not for the first time, she wondered why the hell she had gotten herself into this mess. Gods! Jen narrowed her eyes and halted her retreat. If she gave up now…

"Hey, I'm woman enough to not lie. Yes, I am scared." Jen said as calmly as she could and crossed her arms. "But, I also know when to call your bluff, so stop with the whole intimidation bit."

The blond stopped and smiled, revealing those curved fangs to the fullest. "But, my sweet chickadee," She countered. "Intimidation is half of a battle, the other is brute force!" As she ended her statement, Jezebel launched both of her hands forward and pushed back, sending the unprepared kitsune out of the dungeon and into the large corridor outside the cell.

Jen braced herself as she collided with the floor, but she wasn't a fighter and the impact of her body being pummeled into the stone sent a level of pain that she wasn't expecting and hadn't properly braced for. She lay dazed for a moment, pinned underneath the weight of Jezebel's left hand as her attacker pulled her right arm back, slammed the dungeon door shut, and then dragged her hand across the thick wood.

Hissing erupted from beneath Jezebel's fingertips as a new type of scroll began to materialize across the wooded surface. "Thought you'd be foxy, eh?" The fanged blond laughed. On the door lay a brand-spankin' new scroll. Its design was similar, but not quite the same as the scrolls that had been decorating the cell previously. With a hiss of delight she turned her attention back to those still trapped inside. "Go ahead and pick those locks, it won't do you any good so long as this scroll stays intact."

Somebody (by the name of Hiei) cursed loudly in a foreign language that neither girl could identify.

"Ohh, so testy my forbidden one!" The blond mocked. "You don't have to speak **that** language to understand what you said."

With a feral growl Jen reached up and seized Jezebel's hand with her own. Instinctively she twisted it smartly to the right, attempting to break her wrist and, if she were lucky, dislocate the elbow as well.

"HANDS OFF!" Our hero shouted as she completed the move. The hand, which had not been securely latched to her in the first place came off of Jen's body without too much force; and with the blondes attention elsewhere, her hand was easy to manipulate and turned in the desired direction. But, instead of the lovely popping noise one would expect to hear when a joint has been sufficiently popped—not to mention broken, the whole appendage contorted about itself as if it were something boneless.

Jen's face twisted into one of disgust as Jezebel turned her attention back to her.

"Ha!" The blond chortled. "A good idea, well…at least it would have been if I had the same bones as you do." With a yank she removed Jen's hold and allowed her arm to spin back into its normal position.

"Jen, she's a snake demon!" Kit shouted from inside the cell. "Her body is like rubber!"

Undaunted Jen hauled herself to her feet. "Nice." She grumped.

"Your move, Chickadee." Jezebel informed and spread her arms wide as Jen cocked her head to the side and studied her body. "Or are you out of ideas?"

---

Kuwabara heaved himself to his feet and staggered over to the door. Even though he hated to admit it, he was still a little weak due to the life force donation he had to give to Jen. With a grunt he peered over through the bars as Kit hurried about and picked himself then Hiei from the nest of wards decorating their bodies.

"Kit," Kuwabara started as his eyes roamed from girl to girl. "Does Jen even know what the heck she's doing?"

Kit growled and struggled with yet another lock. "No." He spat. "I didn't have the time to teach her a thing. Ahh!" He threw a tool down and reached into his pocket to remove another one. He was quickly becoming distressed over the fact that things were quickly going to hell in a hand-basket.

"Then what the hell is she doing out there?" Kuwabara demanded.

"Buying time." Kit answered. Though truthfully he had hoped that this wouldn't have happened. True he had sent the girl out there to battle an opponent, but he thought that they would have had their skirmish inside the cell; a…for lack of a better word, "cat fight" was all he had been looking for. "This was not what I had in mind." He grumped and disentangled himself from the chains. Once free he swiftly descended onto a more then willing fire Kurumi.

"But!" Kuwabara sputtered. "Girls shouldn't fight!"

---

"Well?" Jezebel demanded as she advanced a step towards our hero.

Jen took a deep breath but didn't back down. "Could you give me a moment?" She asked calmly.

Jezebel quirked an eyebrow. _What was she up to?_ "Why?" She demanded, deciding to humor the girl.

Jen, sensing her opponent's amusement took the time to remove the tie that was holding up Kuwabara's pants. Kit's white cloth-belt made a slithering noise, almost like silk as it loosened and gracefully allowed itself to fold about Jen's skilful hand. "I need to return some clothing that's not mine. I don't want to ruin it when I pound your face into the pavement. " Jen lightly stepped out of Kuwabara's pants as she talked and draped them neatly about her arm. "Blood is so hard to get out of fabric."

Jezebel smiled grimly. "I do agree with that."

Jen held the garments out in front of her. "Then, may I?"

Jezebel gracefully stepped backwards, one foot crossing behind the other until she stood far enough away that Jen could walk to the cell's door and still maintain a three foot space bubble. "Be my guest."

Jen walked confidently towards the door, ignoring the eyes that bore into her as she moved. Kuwabara was now standing behind the bars, eyes flicking between the two intently as she approached.

"Jen? What are you doing?" He whisper-screamed.

Jen lifted up the clothing and fed them through the bars. "You wanna run around half naked?!" Her voice sounded pinched, gods she was gonna die!

Kuwabara helped take the clothes from her. "Listen." He mumbled. "Use your left hand to guard your head and your right to beat the crap out of that snake-lady. Aim for the face or her gut for a take out shot, and when you hit her throw your whole upper body into the shot or your gonna get creamed out there." He advised.

Jen nodded dumbly. "I gotta get in close?" Her voice was high.

Kuwabara nodded back. "Now, don't panic. Just try to take her out as quickly and with as much force as you can. When she goes down, I know its not honorable but just keep hitting her! Don't stop 'till you **know** she's not gonna get up again!"

Jen took a deep breath while her thoughts jumped to her favorite fighting game at home. YYH Dark tournament; in the game she used tactics like that all the time. "Just like in the game?"

"Just like in the game." Kuwabara assured, not having a clue as to what she was talking about but agreeing with it all the same.

"Okay." She breathed and turned around, then faltered. "**You're** telling **me** to fight?"

Kuwabara made a face and jabbed a thumb into his chest. "Hey, I don't like it. But you're all we got!"

With that, our hero turned back to what she was supposed to be doing.

---

Jezebel stood examining her long nails as Jen made her way back over. "I trust you are all taken care of?"

"Yes."

"Good, it's still your move."

Jen took a deep breath, _Okay, this is just like YYH dark tournament. I'll go in close like I do with Yusuke and…wait, I use mostly kicking attacks with him. Should I do that or follow Kuwabara's advice? Oh hell, I'll figure that out when I get there!_

Jezebel smirked and shifted into a low crouch as Jen ran towards her, the little chickadee was a newcomer to the fighting world. This was evident through her bold charge and unsure stance as she drew close. Jezebel formed a fist as the girl came forward, ready to punch her square in the face.

Suddenly Jen switched her charge, instead of surging directly into the heat of battle, she veered left and pivoted quickly on her dominant leg. The force of the movement quickly whipped the girl around so that she could deal a swift uppercut to…empty space?

Pain erupted on the side of Jen's head, rocking her world sideways and popping her neck. A new blow followed quickly, delivered straight into her gut and throwing her back a few feet. Instinctively our hero's arms encircled her squashed midsection and she hacked violently. Sour bile surged up her throat under the intense pain. But, by some miracle, she didn't puke; only sank to her knees in winded agony.

Jezebel snapped back into perspective a few meters away laughing gaily. "Again a wonderful effort. But lets be serous, my sweet little chickadee. You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into."

Jen moaned pathetically, her body ached like hell and she wanted nothing more then to crawl into a hole somewhere and just die.

"You're doing fine!" Kuwabara yelled from the sidelines. "Just stay with it!"

_I'm not doing fine!_ Jen hissed mentally as she dragged herself back to her feet.

"Back for more?" Jezebel asked and shifted into a new stance.

Jen brought her fists up the way she had seen boxers do and planted her feet squarely on the ground.

"Don't lock up, keep it loose!" Kuwabara shouted.

Jezebel cast a glare over her shoulder. "Enough from the peanut gallery!"

"No!" Kuwabara bellowed defiantly.

Jezebel straightened and turned toward Kuwabara. "Listen, you idiot. I'll give you something to shout about when I—"

Jen's fist connected with the demoness's jaw, hard. The blow staggered the taller woman while Jen backed up and brought her hands back up into position about her head.

"He may be an idiot. But he's **my** idiot!" Jen snarled, lips curving back to reveal her own set of pearly fangs.

Jezebel brought a hand up and dabbed where she had been punched with her fingers. With a slowness born of intense anger, the blond turned on the girl and resumed her position.

Both women eyed each other for a moment before Jezebel launched into action. The demon snapped out of perception, leaving Jen to wonder where she would strike.

Our her caught a flash of gold out of the corner of her eye just in time to turn and bring up a cross armed block. Her bones vibrated as Jezebel's attack harmlessly bounced off her forearms. The blond jumped back and brought her leg up for a devastating kick. Jen danced out of the way, grateful for the feeling of wind as it whistled by in a harmless breeze. But her relief didn't last long as she was forced to hit the dirt to dodge the next kick Jezebel sent her way. In response, our hero kicked her leg out, sweeping it across the ground and catching it on her opponents leg.

Jezebel landed hard on her back as Jen took her chance and scrambled to her feet. Once on them the black haired girl kicked again, landing a blow to the larger woman's stomach area. Jezebel let out a rather unladylike "oof!"

Jen pulled back and sent her foot forward again, attempting to strike Jezebel yet again. Only to find that the woman had taken the opportunity to flee while Jen had pulled back.

Jezebel was on her feet in moments and tried to sneak behind our hero. But, Jen wasn't going to have any of that. The black Kitsune changed her attack and moved with the blond, keeping her facing the front at all times, circling each other like wolves.

"not bad." The blond said.

Jen panted heavily, choosing not to retort.

Suddenly, they were off again. Jen shot forward and used her momentum to propel her right fist forward. The blond's arms went up, blocking the punch and shoving it off course.

Jen staggered, thrown off balance by her own momentum.

Jezebel leaped into the air, using her opponents moment of weakness to ready herself for a more devastating attack. A smirk formed on her lips as one of her pail hands reached out.

"POISON PINS!"

Jen had watched too many shows to not understand the implications of her enemy shouting something at her. But she was off balance, she'd never be able to block in time! She had only one choice. Our hero allowed the momentum to follow through, which basically meant she allowed herself to fall to the ground. She landed with a dull thud and started to roll, hopefully out of range of whatever was being shot.

SMACK!

Jen cursed thickly as her back collided with the wall.

A noise like shattering glass echoed through the room as Jezebel's attack fell short. Jen's eyes grew wide as she witnessed the attack. It was very similar to Touya's 'shards of winter', but only because they both threw shards of something at the victim.

Unlike Touya, Jezebel's attack was constructed of what appeared to be long, thin glass. Only, stronger.

Jen pushed herself up, adrenaline beginning to pump through her. That pile…that could have been her.

Jezebel landed with a soft tap. "Dang, I missed."

Our hero's eyes flicked between the impaled ground and Jezebel. The demoness could use long range attacks, while Jen still had nothing in the arsenal department. Wait…she had that spear thingy that she thought of in Inari's tent. Maybe she could call that out?

Jen brought her hands out in front of her and focused some energy there, the way she had seen Kurama or Yusuke focus before they could launch an attack.

Instantly that warm feeling, the same she had used when destroying the wards, fizzled and sparked between her hands.

Jezebel smirked and tossed her hair with the same finesse as any model in a shampoo commercial, making its sparkling waves do interesting things about her shoulders. "Mmmm…your aura, it's good. No wonder your broke my seals."

Jen scrunched up her face in disgust and tried harder at the weapon, coaxing it out of her mind and into her hand. Finally, something began to form in her hands. It was long and see-through, almost a tangible object.

Jen's hands shook and her head throbbed, but she still went on. If she didn't have a weapon, she was screwed. And not in a good way either.

Jezebel laughed and snapped her fingers.

With the sound of a party popper, Jen's weapon fizzled and sparked out of existence.

Jen jumped and let out an eep of surprise.

Jezebel laughed and put her hands on her cheeks. "Poor, poor little chickadee. She doesn't even realize that her chi is all dried up."

Jen looked at her trembling hands. She had failed in getting her weapon. What was she gonna do now?

"But mine," Jezebel continued gaily, drowning out Jen's thoughts. "is not. Poison Pins!"

Jen looked up and watched as Jezebel threw out her hand and launched a new barrage of glass at her. Our hero gasped and threw herself to the right, barley escaping the attack.

"RUN!" Jezebel crowed as she zeroed in on Jen. "POISON PINS!"

Jen rolled and leapt to her feet, glass pounding into the wall behind her. She ran, trying to stay one step in front of Jezebel's attack. But Jezebel wasn't going to have any of that. She closed one eye and angled her hand to fire an attack in front of Jen, having the girl run full into them.

"POISON PINS!"

The shards flew from the blond towards the wall with dizzying speed. But, it was stone, not flesh that they imbedded themselves. Jezebel smirked, she had missed the child, but now she had an excuse to reveal her next attack.

"boom." She whispered. Instantly the shards behind and in front of the trapped Kitsune exploded into a hailstorm of poisoned shards.

Jen screamed and barely had enough time to cover her eyes as the glass exploded and cut into any exposed flesh. The scant dress and bodice protected her vitals but the rest of her was covered in bloody scratched anywhere from paper-cut to an inch deep. Jen staggered backwards, blinded by pain and the need to get away. Glass cut into her feet and imbedded itself there.

Jen screeched again and fell to the ground in a bleeding heap.

Glass cut her cruelly where the dress did not cover her, sinking into her flesh and ripping her skin.

Jezebel laughed and watched the piteous creature before her. The girl was sure to die soon. Every shard of glass was covered in a toxin which would destroy her body permanently with in the hour.

"Had enough?" Jezebel demanded the slightly sobbing girl.

Jen gritted her teeth and tried not to cry as she began to pull the glass out of her feet. But pain had never been her thing. Fat tears welded down her face as quickly as the blood that oozed from her broken body.

"Ohh, don't cry." Jezebel cooed. "It will speed your heart-rate; which, in turn, will send my poison running through your system faster. Not that it matters." The snake woman grinned, eyes glowing a sickly shade of green. "Slow, or fast, the poison will take your life in an hour."

"…Skilt wanted her alive…" A dark voice purred coldly.

Jezebel turned quickly to face two new opponents. Kurama and Yusuke.

She gasped, pretty face contorting into an 'O' of surprise. "M-master Yusuke, Kurama?!"

Both of them stood in the shadows. How long they had been watching the fight was unclear. They could have just arrived, or have been there for hours. The pair was as silent as the grave and had a timeless air about them.

"U-Urameshi!?" Kuwabara bellowed through the bars.

Yusuke didn't even look in that direction. Instead he fixed Jezebel with a cold glare.

Jezebel took a step back. "M-My lord. I never would have **killed** her! I…Lord Skilt has an antivenin, h-he keeps it with him constantly!"

"Be that as it may," Kurama said quietly, "I ordered you to bring her to me unharmed, 'as whole as you found her.' Those were my exact words. Were they not?"

Jezebel's eyes grew wide. "T-there is still time. We can save her life!"

Kurama looked at Yusuke, then back at Jezebel.

With out a word he walked over the glass, ignoring the crunching as he went and stood over the still sobbing girl.

---

"Kurama!" Kuwabara shouted and reached through the bars. "C'MON!"

Two others had joined Kuwabara at the grill. One silent; the other sad, knowing that this was it. Everything was over.

Kit closed his eyes. "We failed." His voice was clipped.

Hiei turned smoldering eyes on the fox. "We fix our plan." He spat, for once taking the lead.

Kit closed his eyes and leaned against the door. "You don't understand." He whispered, everything about him reeked defeat.

Hiei glared his ruby eyes and grabbed Kit by the chin, dragging the tall youko down to his level. "Shut up." He spat. "We win this." Ruby eyes flicked out to Kurama and back to Kit. "NOW!"

Kit rolled his eyes away. "We can't win. Skilt has three of the worlds most powerful fighters on his side, plus armies ready to march. Even if we do take down Yusuke and Kurama, we cannot defeat Skilt. Not in our current condition."

Hiei squeezed his hand painfully on Kits jaw. "Three? That female was pathetic."

Kit closed his eyes. "That is what you don't understand."

Hiei narrowed his eyes. "Then explain it!"

Kit sighed. "Inari created Jen specifically for _this_ job. He gave her **_power_**, more then you or I could ever imagine. But, right now its sleeping. Kept dormant by her dominant consciousness. It's the same mechanism that keeps a human from overloading its body with spirit energy." Kit cast a glance out towards Jen.

"Even though she knows she has been transformed into a demon, she still thinks and believes that she's human. As long as that mode of though continues, her conscious brain will forced her power down. Lock it away inside her."

Hiei growled. "Then call it out of her!"

"I can't. She has to realize it for herself."

Kuwabara turned back towards Kit. "If she's got all this power in her, then why is it over? We can beat Skilt!"

Kit laughed bitterly. "A Jagonshi that is too weak by torture to call even his most basic attacks, a human deprived of spirit energy, and a kitsune. That's all we have against Kurama, a fully charged Yusuke, and Skilt. Yes…we'll win for sure."

Kuwabara glared at Kit. "We've been through worse!" He spat. "Now, you can either suck it up, get us out 'a here or we leave you."

What ever kit was going to say was silenced by a shout.

"SPIRIT GUN!"

All sound and sight was obliterated by a flash of blue tinted white light. Seconds seemed like hours as they waited for the light to dim. But finally, it did, leaving only nothing left of its target. Not even a puff of smoke.

"Now do you see." Kit whispered, after the true horror of Yusuke's attack sunk in. "Skilt's drugs enhance a person's ability to tap their power by nullifying the conscious brain. When he takes Jen…we'll be fighting a demon with the strength of a demi-god."

---

Jen looked up at the gold-green swirled eyes of Kurama, and felt fear. There was an emptiness to them yet at the same time, something intelligent lurked just beneath their depths. He watched her, cold and detached. Like some puppet waiting for orders.

"Kur…" She started in a whisper, but said no more. Those inhuman eyes fixed on her and chilled her soul.

Jen looked away towards Yusuke. He stood five feet away, tall and deadly. His eyes were the color of chocolate, burning chocolate.

He raised his hands at Jezebel, while she still chattered on about how life could still be preserved. Desperately trying to get Yusuke to spare her. Yusuke shaped his right hand in the form of a gun and cocked his thumb.

Jen gasped and started to move.

Kurama reached down and placed a hand gently, but firmly on her shoulder. "Stay." He commanded.

Jen looked up, but he was no longer paying attention to her. Though his hand stayed where it was.

"PLEASE! MASTER YUSUKE!?" Jezebel was screaming.

Yusuke simply smirked and fixed his glowing eyes on the snake woman. "SPIRIT GUN!"

Jezebel inhaled to scream. But she never made it. The large white ball flew towards, and enveloped her form in its haze. Jezebel's arms and legs jerked like mad things as she fought to hold off Yusuke's attack. But Yusuke's strength beat hers. The ball overwhelmed the demon and devoured her whole. Wiping away every speck.

The wind of Yusuke's attack swept over Kurama and Jen, whipping their hair around in a maddening frenzy of red on black. Finally, after about twenty seconds, all was over but the shouting.

Yusuke looked at Kurama and smiled a little smile. Something between intense pain and pleasure. He turned his eyes on Jen and walked over.

Never before in Jen's life had she wanted to shrink away from Yusuke as she did now. Yusuke had always been a cocky boy, with a happy smile. But this grin he wore, this perverse mask. This wasn't the boy she had come to know, and love.

Yusuke stalked forward until his sneakers ground the glass in front of her. He kneeled down and squatted on his heels. This position placed their faces close together.

Jen drew back from him as much as she was able. Yusuke's eyes were as dull as Kurama's, and something moved behind them too. What, she didn't know.

Yusuke glanced up form her to Kurama. "How bad is she?"

Kurama looked down. "Bad. She has that toxin running through her. I think Skilt will be able to save her, though."

Something flashed in Yusuke's eyes, something akin to despair. "Good." His eyes flicked back to the boys. "I'll take care of them."

Jen looked at Yusuke." W-What?"

Kurama bent down and got ready to pick her up. Jen struggled and managed to bat Kurama's hands away.

"Yusuke! Don't you hurt them! I-I'll…!"

The black haired teen stopped and slowly turned around. That same sick smile curving his lips. "You'll what? Kill me?"

Kurama glanced between the two, pausing.

Yusuke took a step towards Jen and held his arms out to the side. "Go ahead and try." He bent at the waist a little. "I welcome it."

Jen licked her lips as tears found their way to her eyes. "Please." She begged.

Yusuke chuckled darkly and turned back towards the cell, raising his hand as he did so. "Like shooting fish in a barrel." He said, and fired his spirit gun.

"YUSUKE!!!"

"KUWABARA!!!"

---

Kuwabara froze as Yusuke turned to face them. There was something wrong with the dark haired fighter, as if a piece of him were dead. It wasn't something you could see, or touch. It was a feeling. Just a feeling of off-ness, like when he got the 'tickle-feeling'. Something that screamed 'wrong.'

Kit closed his eyes. "Game over." He mumbled darkly.

Hiei growled loudly and shoved the useless fox aside. Things were going to get bad, and quickly. He did not need a handicap.

"Yusuke! Don't you hurt them! I-I'll…" Jen cried weakly.

Hiei shifted uncomfortably.

Yusuke turned back towards Jen. "You'll what? Kill me? Go ahead and try. I welcome it."

"Please!" Jen begged.

Kuwabara gritted his teeth as he dug his fingers into his palms, ignoring the pain when they started to bleed. This wasn't Urameshi. There was no way he could just waist someone like that and not care. He would never turn on his friends, it would be…un-manly!

Yusuke turned back around and, crazily enough, locked eyes with Kuwabara.

…_Help me…._

Kuwabara blinked and shook his head. No way, no friggin way! He did so not just hear Yusuke pleading for help in his head.

Yusuke chuckled, very evilly, and raised his hands.

_…please, somebody….help…me…_

Kuwabara stood wide-eyed and didn't even register that Yusuke had brought up his hands. He could hear, through some freaky sort of link. It was almost like when they had been fighting Dr. Ichigaki's crew. M1, 2, and three. He had dreamed of them, begging for help. For rescue.

But he wasn't dreaming now! He was wide awake!

"Like shooting fish in a barrel. SPIRIT GUN!"

Something white shot at Kuwabara, breaking the frozen teen from whatever bond had held the two together before. The carrot toped teen took a reflexive step backwards, but there was no way for him to dodge this bullet.

Somewhere in the background, he could hear Jen screaming Yusuke's name, and right after it, his own.

end chapter 11


	12. Chapter 12

Sorry this took me so long to get done. I had a lot of things happen since 2006 :(

Also please ignore any spelling errors or mistakes. I have no way to spell check since my old computer died. I am currently writing with WordPad.

Also: I don't own YYH. Only Jen.

Enjoy:

Something white shot at Kuwabara, breaking the frozen teen from whatever bond had held the two together before. The carrot toped teen took a reflexive step backwards, but there was no way for him to dodge this bullet.

Somewhere in the background, he could hear Jen screaming Yusuke's name, and right after it, his own.

end chapter 11

Chapter 12

Jen stared open mouthed at the smoldering hole that was left after Yusuke's attack. Small bits of stone crumbled and fell from a hole that was at least 6 feet in diamator. She wanted to scream, vomit, and laugh at the same time. Yusuke turned back to her, slowly relaxing his gun hand as he did so.

An inhuman scream filled the space.

The next thing Jen knew she had yusuke by the hair with one hand and slapping his face with the other. It took her a moment to realize that the scream was hers. She was screaming and trying to rip out his hair with one hand, while beating him with the other. Arms wrapped themselves around her waist, hauling her back.

Jen turned claws onto the arms that held her. She bucked her body like a mad woman. Blood flew as the hands that held her let go. Something smacked the side of her head and she fell. Glass cut into her arms and legs as she tried to get to her feet. A shoe colided with her head and the world spun. The last thing she saw before darkness ate her world was a pair of hands reaching for her.

Kuwabara moaned as he came to. He was lying on the ground...how did...where...? Memmories came flooding back. He was in Skilt's castle. Yusuke had tried to kill them. He licked his dry lips as he became aware of weight on his body. His eyes rolled down to find Kit's head burrid against his stomach and body suggestivly covering his own.

"EYAAAAAAAAA!" Kuwabara screeched and bolted up right.

"CAREFUL IDIOT!" Hiei barked and managed to catch the fox as he rolled bonelessly off the teen.

Kuwabara placed a hand over his heart and gasped for breth as Hiei laied the unconcious Kit onto the floor face down.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS HE LYING ON ME FOR?"

Hiei brushed the fox's ruby red hair off his back and over his shoulder, exposing a nightmarish sceen. Kit's back was burned, bloody, and looked like a pin coushin. But it wasn't needles that stuck out of his back, it was wood.

Kuwabara stopped fussing and crawled over to the injured fox. "I...Is he dead?"

"No, Just unconcious." Hiei said. "Now get this wood out before his back heals around it."

"W-What? Eww."

Hiei shot Kuwabara an evil glare.

"He almost died saving your sorry ass. I suggest you get to work."

Kuwabara complied and began to pick the wood out. Some came easily, otheres...not so much. He grimised at the squeltching sound. Kit moaned, but did not wake. The moan was painfilled and pitiful.

"Work faster fool, he's waking up." Hiei spat.

"I can't get them all! Help me!" Kuwabara shouted.

It shocked the hell out of Kuwabara, but Hiei actually got down and helped. Together they managed to get the worst of it out before Kit opened his eyes.

"Hold him." Hiei barked.

Kuwabara complied, forcing his weight down on Kits shoulders. The fox's moans turned to heavy pants and half screams as Hiei finished what he could. After what seemed like hours, but was more likely minuets, Hiei stood and walked away.

Kit lay shaking on the ground. It hurt to breath, hurt to move. He reached up and took a seed out from his hair and bit it. He barely noticed the bitterness when he broke its shell. He swallowed it and prayed that it would work quickly. He must have blacked out beacuse the next thing he knew Kuwabara was shaking him slightly.

"Kit...hey Kit. Hiei's gone. What are we gonna do?" The teen almost sounded scaird.

Kit took a deep breath, when nothing hurt he managed to sit seed was working, all he had to do now was keep ahead of the pain and pray he didn't get in infection. His eyes scanned the darkness. Where was Jen? Did she go with Hiei?

"Where's Jen?" Kit asked.

Kuwabara's face crumpled. "I think Yusuke took her. I don't know though, when we woke up they were gone."

Kit closed his eyes. He remembered now. The fight, the apearane of Yusuke and Kurama. She was probably at Skilt's mercy now. The thought of what Skilt might do to the girl forced Kit to his feet. He stumbled and caught himself on a wall for balance. Dear gods, he felt about as weak as a new born pup.

"Uh, I don't think you should be up yet." The teen laughed nervously.

"I have to find her. He'll kill her at best. I don't even want to know what he'll do at his worst." Kit said.

He had to use the wall as suport and he cursed under his breath when it took more effort than it should have to walk. Suddenly an arm was around his waist and another hand was guiding one of his arms over Kuwabra's shoulders. Kit sagged slightly, but the teen took his weight. They were pretty close to the same height so it wasn't too uncomfortable for either of them.

"Don't worry, we'll find your girl." Kuwabara said and held out his pinky.

Kit took the help with a lopsided smile and the two of them hobbled out of the chamber in search of Jen.

Jen woke to a pain in her shoulders. Her eyes fluttered open and she tood a deep breath. The metalic scent of blood filled the room. Torches flickered casting goulish shadows upon the walls. Jen tensed and became aware of chains that held her arms above her head. She was standing on the balls of her feet as the chains held her almost off the ground.

"Finally awake?" A framiliar voice cooed.

Jen tensed and seached the darkness. Her eyes picked out Skilt sitting in the middle of the room in a large chair. The torches lit half of his face and highlighed the curve of a shoulder, but nothing more. It left his eyes glowing in the darkness.

Lights turned on, fludding the darkness in harsh white light. Jen jerked and closed her eyes. It hurt after the darkness. Her feet danced slightly trying to keep under her. She had no way to balance herself.

"Go screw yourself, Skilt." Her voice sounded horse.

"Thought you were very origional didn't you? _Oh, I'll work for you. You don't have to worry about lil' ol' turn coat me!_" skilt said. He made his voice high and squeaky in a mock version of Jen. "Do you honestly think I didn't know what you were doing in my own home?"

Jen said nothing.

"Are you happy now that everyone is dead?"

Jen clenched her teeth. He was lying. They had to be alive. They just had to be. This was the world of Yu Yu Hakusho, the good guys didn't die. Did they?

"They are not dead." Jen said quietly.

Skilt raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "What?"

Jen raised her head and glared at him. "THEY ARE NOT DEAD!" She all but shouted the words.

Skilt simply laughed. "Confident, arent we?" He snapped his fingers and Yusuke stepped forward. "Yusuke, please tell Jen what you found in that cell."

"I didn't look in the cell." Yusuke said.

Skilt bolted forward. "YOU WHAT!"

"I didn't look in the cell." Yusuke repeated. "They could not have survived a direct hit."

Skilt looked uneasy for a second, but finally accepted Yusuke's word. These half creatures that he made out of them couldn't lie. If he said they were dead, they were. But...no harm in being over caucious. "Yusuke, go take a walk. You know what to do should you find something." Skilt said.

Yusuke turned on his heel and left.

Skilt turned back to Jen. "Now...what to do with you?"

"Why don't you just kill me and get it over with." Jen said.

"Aww. Lost hope already, dear?" Skiled said.

Jen closed her eyes. "You are going to do it anyway, so cut the bull and get it over with."

Skilt burst out laughing at that remark. Jen watched him and let her hope die.

"Kill you? Oh no, sweet-heart, please. Stop being so dramatic. No, I have something much better in mind for you. Jen, you are a symbol." Skilt said.

"What?" Jen asked.

Skilt rolled his eyes. "A symbol. You were hand picked by Inari to stand in my way. What message will your own world have when they see you fighting by my side. Their very own champion a pawn in my hand?"

"They don't even know I'm here." Jen said.

"Are you so sure?" Skilt asked. He turned his face away from Jen into empty space. "The very people who you are protecting are listening to what we say right now." He didn't seem to be talking to Jen anymore. "I know you are there, and I'm coming. I'll be breaking that infamus forth wall you all are so fond of. And when I do, whoever you are, I'll be your master!"

Fourth wall? Jen bit her lip. What wall was he talking about. She shook her head, that guy was crazy.

"There are only four more hours until my portal is ready. Once it is I'll be taking my army into your pitiful world. Your nations will fall and I will be the supreme leader of all mankind." Skilt laughed. "But first, I have the pleasure of taking care of you."

Jen licked her lips. "What are you going to do to me?"

"Never you mind dear, never you mind." Skilt said and advanced upon her.

Jen took a breath but never got a chance to scream. He was on her with knives and teeth. There wasn't a part of her that he didn't touch, didn't cut, didn't bite. When he raped her, she did scream. She screamed until there was nothing left.

Hiei ripped the bandana from his forehead and opened his Jagon eye. He could feel it. There was something nearby and it was drilling though the very fabric of reality itself. He searched with the eye, alowing it to see what it willed.

He caught a snipit of silver, crimson blood spirting, a woman's screams. Skilt was working his magic on Jen. Two lumbering bodies searching in the dark, slow, easy prey. Kit and Kuwabra. Heat, sweat, blood, ozone. Fear and excitement. A tenticaled body being blown to bits in the face of something forign something unknown. Hiei opened his eyes and placed the cloth back over the Jagon. He had found the portal and aparently it wasn't that far away.

It wasn't long before he ran into the first of the guards, he killed them quietly and continued on his way.

Jen lay broken and bleading on the floor. Her throat and mouth burned from screaming and whaterver he had forced her to drink. The taste of it was thick and cloying in her mouth. She didn't move. The cuts Skilt had inflicted earlier were almost healed. Her body was recovering as fast as a demon's. The only wounds that seamed to remain were the bites he had inflicted to her upper body and thighs. They followed the pattern of her vains and some still blead lightly. Jen turned and left the room.

"Can you hear me?" Skilt asked.

"Yes." Jen croaked. She hadn't wanted to answer but she couldn't seem to stop herslf.

"Good. That stupid Raikai prince has sent a second team into my domain to try and distroy the portal, I want you to kill them." Skilt ordered.

Jen rose to her feet. She couldn't seem to stop herself. No matter how hard she tried. It was as if her body was moving on its own.

Skilt laughed to himself. Everything was falling into place.

"You've gone far enough Hiei."

Hiei stopped and threw off his cloak as Yusuke stepped into view. Hiei bent his knees and rested his weight on the balls of his feet. He placed his hands into his pants pockets and regarded the spirit dective with cold ruby eyes.

Yusuke raised his hand up and pointed it into a gun. "Spirit gun."

Hiei moved out of the way and rushed the teen. He was about to punch Yusuke across the face when somebody else beat him to it. Hiei dodged back as Jin the windmaster took Yusuke head on.

"I thought ya was on our side!" Jin shouted as he locked Yusuke in a sleaper hold. "Close yer eyes lad, we'll talk about when ya wake."

Yusuke struggled, but not as much as he could have. Jin held him firmly until his eyes fluttered closed and he fell unconcious. Once he was out, Jin lifted Yusuke over his shoulder and turned to Hiei.

"An' here I thought ya all would be dead." Jin gave a grin. "Touya's already on figuring out how ta shut the portal down."

Hiei relaxed slightly and followed the jabbering wind master.

'I want to stop walking.' Jen thought. But she couldn't seem to stop. Her mind was a fog and her body ached with the need for rest, but She felt like a puppet on a string. Moving and dancing to someone elses command.

"JEN!" Kit shouted.

Jen tensed and stopped walking. Her head snapped in the direction of the voice. She could see kit staggering away from Kuwabara and making his way towards her. Tears welded into her eyes and she ran to him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and cry. But it wasn't a hug that she gave him when she got there.

Jen's body turned automatically and she shoved Kit in the solar plexis. Kit cried out as his balance went bad and he fell to the ground. Jen held her hands out in front of her in horror. What had she done.

_...Kill them..._ Skilt's command echoed in her head.

"S-Stay away!" Jen cried.

Kit crab walked back from her to Kuwabara. He could smell something on her. It reaked of poison. Kuwabara took a step forward but Kit stopped him with a hand. Jen fell to her knees and hugged her torso.

"Stay away...stay away...stay away..." She whispered. Her eyes were shut tight and she rocked herself slowly back and forth.

"Jen?" Kuwabara said.

Jen grabbed two fistfulls of her hair and screamed. She could see herself getting up and riping out his throat. She was suposed to kill him. But she couldn't. She wouldn't kill them. No. No. No. Jen dragged her nails down her arms and focused on the pain. That was real. Not the desire to kill them. That was Skilt. He had put that compulsion there with whatever he had forced her to drink.

"Jen." Skilt said. "Get up."

Jen froze. His voice was so soothing. It dulled the pain from her claws. Her body relaxed and she placed her hands under herself to push up. She was on her feet before she realized what happened.

"Amazing how you can fight it." Skilt mused and stepped forward. He reached out and gently ran a hand through her hair. "Even with my marks on you, you still fight."

"Don't touch her!" Kit growled.

Skilt laughed and pulled Jen into his body. He ran his hands up and down her, his fingers lingering on her breasts. "I've already touched her. She bares my marks." He ran his hand down to her thigh and demonstrated a perfect mark of his teeth.

A growl split the air as Kit's hackels rose. Lips pulled back from inhuman teeth. Yellow-green eyes narrowed to slits.

Skilt tilted Jen's face to his. "I do believe he's angry."

Jen closed her eyes as tears slowly slid down her cheeks. Skilt planted a kiss on her lips.

"Kill him." Skilt ordered.

Jen balled her fists into Skilt's shirt burried her head in his shirt. Her body shook with the need to obey his command. It took all her willpower to stay where she was. "no." She whsipered.

Skilt shoved Jen away from himself and screamed "KILL HIM!"

Jen staggared away from Skilt. "PLEASE!" She was crying. Something materalized in her hands. It was the weapon from Inari's tent. The cool dark wood was firm against her hand. With a twist of her wrist the blade shot out from the end. She didn't want to kill him. She fought as her foot wormed its way forward.

"JEN! I **ORDER YOU **TO KILL HIM!" Skilt all but screamed.

Our hero launched herself forward unable to resist a direct order. Kit looked like a dear caught in the headlights. Jen raised her arms over her head and brought it down into empty air. Kit had stumbled out of the way at the last moment.

"Spirit SWORD!" Kuwabara shouted and brought up his weapon.

Jen turned and followed kit but Kuwabara stepped in her way.

"What's wrong with you Jen?" Kuwabara shouted and sliced forward with his sword.

Jen blocked the cut with her blade, yellow sparks shot from their weapons where they touched. Jen tworled the staff, trying to catch the spirit blade and twist it out of Kuwabara's hand.

"Kuwabara stay away, she'll kill you." Kit cried.

"Like she won't kill you!" Kuwabara grunted as he blocked another of Jen's blows.

Kit got to his feet and staggard away from Kuwabara, Jen followed his motion. Just as he thought, she had not intrest in fighitng Kuwabara. She was ordered to kill him, he if managed to get her away from the teen she would ignore him. Jen ducked under Kuwabara's blow and skirted around behind him.

"I'll handle her. You take caer of Skilt." Kit ordered.

Kuwabara hesitated. Kit had barely been able to walk to where they were now, how in the hell was he suposed to fight Jen. The sound of a metal sword being drawn from a sheith turned Kuwabara away from Kit. Skilt stood with a sword drawn pointed in Kuwabara's direction.

"And here I thought I'd been forgoten." Skilt cooed.

"When Koenma hadn't heard back from you guys he sent us in ta finish the job. That was two weeks ago. Thought we'd never get in till Skilt sent his assassons out ta hunt for some lass." Jin continued. "Managed to sneak into the place with the chaos an' we've been trying ta get the portal down ever since. Touya thinks its somethin' ta do with the crystals. But we havn't found a way to break em yet. Almost there now, just 'round the bend."

Both stopped short when a read headed young man rounded the corner. Kurama stood in their way, rose whip at the ready.

"Ah...See ya already took them out huh?" Jin said. His ears bounced up and down once. Kurama had taken out Touya and Chu in roughly 15 minuets. He was a powerful one, make no mistake.

Jin hummed happily at the thought of another brawl and placed Yusuke gently on the ground, propping his back against the wall so that he couldn't fall and hurt himself.

"If'n I leave ya the crystals, can I fight Kurama?" Jin asked.

"Hn." Hiei agreed.

Jin bounced up and down like a happy little demon as he sized up Kurama. He threw an arm out to the side and began to wind it up. With a little push of power he had the wind around him whipping in a small tornato around his fist. He rushed forward laughing and aimed for Kurama. Hiei disapeared in a flash of black.

Kurama turned to attack Hiei, trying to keep him away from the portal's weak spot but had to let him go as Jin drew near. Kurama launched himself into the air and slashed forward with his whip.

Jin brought the tornato up in a forearm block that stopped the whip. The tornato died around his arm and he pivoted using his forward momentum to spin him around into a round-house kick. His foot colided with Kurama's chest and sent the fox to the ground.

Kurama snaked the whip again making Jin jump back. But he didn't make contact.

Jin kept out of reach and watched the readhead. He looked thinner then he remembered him. Sweat stood out against his forehead and drenched the school uniform he wore. Jin could tell that Kurama was tired. Blood was evident against the pink of the cloth. Touya and Chu had done their jobs. Kurama was weak.

Jin rushed forward and grabbed Kurama in a sleeper hold. "Ease down Kurama. Ol' Jin will fix ya up like Yusuke over there and we'll get ya back ta normal."

Kurama struggled and even in his weakened state he was almost too much for Jin to handel. Kurama relaxed. Jin loosened his grip slightly, thinking Kurama had passed out. Suddenly Kurama was moving. He threw a pollon of some kind into Jin's face. Jin cried out and rubbed his eyes. What ever it was, it itched! The windmaster was blind, he fell to his knees and started to sneeze. He was helpless as the pollon too effect.

Kurama ran off down the hall after Hiei.

"Please!" Jen wimpered as she circled Kit. Dear god she didn't want to kill him. But she couldn't disobey the order. Kuwabara's scream echoed out from her left followed by the smell of blood. He was down, but not out.

Kit stepped closer drawing her attention back to him. "Jen. Its okay." He said. Her face crumpled and her arms shook with the effort it took to hold her weapon back. Kit opened his arms to her and took another step forward.

"NOOOO!" Jen screamed as her arms jerked forward. The blade bit into Kits flesh and kept going until it was out the other side. Kit grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a hug.

"Its okay." He whispered against her hair and laid a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "Its oaky." He held her close and brought them both down to their knees.

Jen let go of the weapon as Kit held her close. Hot blood scalded her hands and she looked up into his face. His eyes were gentle and a small smile played on his lips. Only the paleness of his cheeks and a light dew of sweat let her know of the pain he was in. He leaned in and gently kissed her.

Jen was too shocked to do anything. Suddenly Kit went limp, his breath going out in a girgle, and fell back from her onto his side.

"NO! Oh god! No! Kit! KIT!" Jen cried. Jen waited for his chest to rise but it never did. He lay so still.

Jen put her hands to the wound she had made with her weapon and pressed her hands around the pole and tried to stop the bleading. If she took out her weapon it would do more damage than if she left it in. Blood pooled around her hands. She couldn't get it to stop.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!" She was screaming.

"FIST OF THE MORTAL FLAME!" Hiei shouted and attacked one of the crystals. The dark unholey fire crackled and burned around the crystal until it cracked. The fire died exposing only a small hairline fracture on one end of the crystal. Almost no damage.

Hiei cursed in a gutteral language. Twenty crystals were arrainged in a pentogram like pattern on the floor that spread almost forty feet wide. In the center of the pentogram lay the portal. Its surface swirrled but did noting else. It was almost completed. Magic was heavy in the air. It felt almost like a physical weight, the kind you that made you want to pop your ears.

Hiei stiffened and turned in time to see Kurama round the last corner. Kurama streightened and raised his whip. His arm shook with exertion and his breath came in heavy pants. He staggared but managed to keep his feet.

"ROSE WHIP!" He shouted.

Hiei managed to jump away just in time. The whip missed him by inches and instead hit the crystal right against the hairline fracture Hiei had made with his own attack.

Several things happened at once. The crystal shattered and the pressure broke with an audioble pop. The portal stopped moving for just a moment before it erupted. The shokwave blew both Kurama and Hiei across the room.

Hiei hit the wall and watched as Kurama hit it moments later. Crystals began to burst as the portal vanished into nothing. Hiei sat blinking in the sudden silence but wasn't surprised at the outcome. Portals were notorious for being weak. If the main source was taken out, then the entire portal usually colapsed.

Kurama moaned and tried to get up. Hiei rolled over and hit the fox on the back of the neck. Kurama flopped back down, finally unconcious. Hiei picked himself up and after a few moments of hap hazard juggeling he was able to pick him up in a fireman's carry.

He left the room and walked back out to where Jin was struggeling.

"Weakling." He spat as he passed Jin.

Jin was washing his red, swolen eyes with water.

"Shud dup!" Jin growled but was so stuffed up that it took much of the bite out of his words.

When he was ready, the windmaster followed Hiei back the way they had come.

Skilt was laughing.

Jen raised her tear streaked face from Kits body. Skilt was laughing. An anger greater than anything she had ever known filled her body. She got to her feet and walked to skilt. Hatered ate at her soul. A low feral growl slowly rumbled from her lips.

Skilt slowly stoped laughing. "Stop."

Jen kept moving forward. The world was eaten by red. Red was all she could see. She bared her teeth as the growel grew louder. Fingernails turned to claws.

Skilt took a step back. "I **order** you to stop!"

Jen threw her head back and screamed. The scream turned into a low animalistic howel of rage. Suddenly skilt was shorter. She towerd over him on four legs of jet black fur. Twelve tails fand out in her rage. Eyes of glowing red fixated on the item of her hate.

Skilt took another step back as Jen pulled a paw back and swipped him across the room. He flew like a rag doll and she chased after him. She flashed out of sight only to reappear ahead of him. She struck again knocking him to the ground.

There was no pain. She could feel nothing save the pleasure of the hunt. Her prey screached as she tossed it into the air. She played with it for a few moments before ending its life with a quick snap of her jaws. She relished the taste of blood as it oozed hot and thick down her throat. One snap, two, and it was gone.

Her ears swivveled as she heard the sweap of cloth. Red eyes locked onto another rubie pair. She growled and turned to the demon. He was holding a sword in his hand. He wanted to fight. Jen launched herself at the small demon. But he was gone.

Pain flashed on her left hind leg. The sword bit deep into her fur but only inches into the flesh. She turned in a rush of midnight black, keeping the small one in sight. They ran paralell together before the small one jumped in a complicated flip to land on her back.

Jen screamed as the sword burried itself hilt deep into her back, narrowly missing her spine. Her head twisted and teeth snapped at the demon. He was gone, drawing the sword out with him twisting as he went to cause more damage. Jen limped away from the small one and growled. She could feel her body healing as she moved. Again her twelve tails spread like a fan behind her, showing her anger.

"ENOUGH!"

Jen turned to find a large white shining thing before her. She attacked teeth sinking into that shining flesh. A hand grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and flipped her onto her back. Teeth were at her throat and a rumbeling growl rumbled against her throat. She struggled as the creature pinned his bulk onto her and forced her to stop moving.

"Jennifer! Come back!" The voice commanded.

Jen turned her head and tried to bite. A hand was over her mouth, pinning it shut. The pressure made it hard to breath through her muzzle. Suddenly she could feel her body shift. Bones snapped and tendones crackled. A hand large enough to cover her entire head was preased against her mouth.

"Its alright." A voice cooed.

Arms lifted her up and held her close to a warm body. She shook in those arms and tried to understand what had just happened to her.

"She's in shock. I forced her to change back from a state where most cannot return." A voice said.

Jen knew that voice. Where had she heard it before. Her spine bowed in pain as something was shoved into her body. Her eyes rolled and locked onto the shining creature again. His hand was above her and he was focing a glowing power into her chest.

His golden eyes were locked onto hers while thirteen tails fanned out behind him. It was then she knew who it was. Inari, god of the Kitusne, was back.

"Can you hear me?" He asked.

"Yes." Jen whispered, she could speak no louder.

A look of relief crossed his face. "You have done well. Skilt is dead, the portal is distroyed, and your world is saved."

Jen smiled. Then it came back. Kit was dead. Her smile vanished and she pushed herself away from the god. She crawled to Kit, hands grabbing onto his. They were cold to the touch.

"H-Help me." She whispered.

Inari looked past her to kit and whistled. "That is a tall order."

Jen turned back to the god. "I'll do anything. Please."

Inari turned his head to the side and regarded her with a golden stair. "Anything? Are you sure you would promise me anything?"

Desprate need clenched Jen's stomach. She didn't know what she would have said beacuse Inari held up a hand. "Calm down Jennier. I'll bring him back. But you must become one of my throng. If i grant you your wish, you shall never returne to your homeworld. Do you understand."

Jen smoothed Kit's hair out of his face and nodded. "I understand. Please, just let him live."

Inari leaned forward and pushed Jen away from Kit. "A bargen struck, so mote it be." The air felt heavy after his words. Reality stood still for a moment before Inari turned to Kit. Hands pulled Jen back away from Kit. She looked up into a very red pair of eyes. It was Jin the windmaster.

"Oh, Jin!" She cried in releaf and burried her face against his chest. It felt so good to see somebody she knew.

Jin tensed but slowly relaxed and held the girl. He turned his attention to the god. It wasn't very often one got to see them work a miracale.

Inari bit his thumb and drew a holy mark upon Kit's head. He chanted in a tongue so old that none alive today knew what it meant. With a flash of light Kit was restored. His chest heaved with a gasp and he sat up, hands flying to his chest where a weapon had once been.

"Easy, my child. You were dead just a moment ago." Inari laughed.

"Jen!" Kit caughed.

"Your lady love is currently in the arms of another man. Hope you arn't the jelous type." Inari laughed.

Kit grimiced as Inari helped him up into a sitting position. Jen was beside him a moment later and holding him close to her.

"I told you it was okay." Kit murmmered and fell into her arms. Jen held him to her and let the tears pour down her face.

In a matter of moments Kit was on his feet and ready to go. Jen was so preocupied with him the she hardly noticed when somebody hit her in the shoulder.

"Hey." Yusuke said.

Jen looked up surprised. "When did you get up?"

"Gee thanks for careing!" Yusuke said. He threw his hands behind his head and looked at her. "So, you are from another world?"

Jen was about to answer when Inari cut her off. "Yes, she is. Now. Time, tide, and trolly wait for no man. Come along Jennifer. Its time for us to go."

Kit looked down at Jen. "Go?"

Inari smiled. "Yes, she traided her freedom for you."

Kit shrugged and stepped forward with Jen. Inari grabbed Jen's hand and pulled her away from kit. "So sorry, but you don't get to come along."

Jen pulled against Inari, but his grip was like iron. Inari turned to her and stroaked her cheek. "You see, when I made her into this form I didn't realize how much of my power it would take. She has become something of a framiliar for me. I was very fortunate that you died so that I could bind her to me with a contract."

Kit rushed forward but was too late. Inari and Jen disapeared in a puff of smoke.

Kit dropped to his knees where Jen had stood. He threw his head back and screamed to the sky.

Epilogue:

Kit sat with his head in his hands. It had been Several months since Jen had disapeared and he still hadn't found her. He thought he had come close a few times, but they had always turned into a dead end. But this time, this time he thought he had something. There was a way to the golden plane. The paralell universe that sat above Raikai and was home to the gods.

"Don't give up, Kit. We'll find her." Yusuke said as he fixed up a bowl of ramen.

Kit took the bowl and slirped loudly on the noodles. Who knew that Yusuke would turn out to be such a good ramen man?

"This one sounds promising. I'll have my people check it out for you." Yusuke said. "Oh yea, Koenma said to tell you he's still stuck behind red tape. He's trying to get Jen out on the grounds that she was a human with a pre-estimated time to die. Therefore she is not able to live on the golden plane or some other crap. He's getting stone walled by Enma though. He doesn't want any chance that his name would show up with the Skilt thing."

Kit nodded and pulled a hat over his ears, least when he leave he shock some poor human. Though the border between the worlds had been brought down years ago. Regular humans still did not know that demons exsisted.

"Kit." Yusuke called.

Kit stopped at the door.

"We'll get her back." Yusuke said.

Kit nodded and left. He would get her back. He would do it if it killed him.

The end.


	13. Chapter 13

Heads up:

Just wanted to let you know I have started the second edition to this series. I hope you enjoy.


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